William of Tudela, in the 131 laisses (stanzas) which he contributed to the Canso, mentions miracles and divine intervention eight times, with five of these being expressly called "miracles". William wrote in Occitan verse and so an exact comparison of terminology cannot be made to Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay, who wrote in Latin prose. To make as complete a comparison as possible, then, I have included all the references I can find from the Canso to anything called a "miracle" or any events described as being due to or affected by divine intervention. All of my quotations and references here will be to Janet Shirley's translation of the Canso, "The Song of the Cathar Wars".
William of Tudela was no skeptic on supernatural matters. In his opening verses he describes himself as a geomancer and claims that his divinations predicted the future course of the crusade. Despite his predilection for geomancy, William was an orthodox and pious Catholic cleric. He was also not a member of the Languedoc society which found itself fighting the crusade. William was from Navarre and from his writings it is clear that he was generally on the side of the crusaders. Unlike Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay, however, his religious viewpoint did not dominate his narrative. While he might explain, as Peter did, that the victims of massacre and slaughter had brought this fate on themselves, he did not present any attendant miracles to show divine approval of that opinion.
THE FIRST MENTION
The commencement of the crusade and the siege and massacre of Beziers are discussed in the first 23 laisses written by William of Tudela. In laisse 25 (p. 23), he is describing the siege of Carcassonne in that first crusading summer:
"Listen to the wonderful work of God! The defenders had crossbowmen stationed high up on the towers, and when they shot at the host, not even half their quarrels reached it, but dropped down instead into the ditches. And I have heard it said for certain and know it to be true that no ravens or vultures or carrion-eating birds flew above the host that whole summer. Victuals were so plentiful, too, that bread was sold at thirty loaves for a penny."
It is unclear if William meant to say that the events in this paragraph were due to divine intervention, or whether he was merely commanding his audience's attention to several benefits which the crusaders enjoyed at that time. It is not the first occasion on which William of Tudela enjoined the audience to listen, but it is the first in which he ascribes events to be the "wonderful work of God". What he describes thereafter is, however, nothing miraculous. Defending archers fired over a long distance and did not always make the required range. Carrion birds did not follow an army. Abundant provisions were acquired.
This last feature of the siege of Carcassonne was also reported by Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay as one "which should not be passed over, and which must indeed be regarded as a great miracle". Perhaps the two authors shared the same opinion as to the miraculous nature of the provisioning of the army, or perhaps they did not. William of Tudela describes a number of fortuitous but not supernatural events under the broad and ambiguous heading of "the wonderful work of God".
Whether or not William thought anything miraculous had occurred, he records Arnau Amalric, then head of the Cistercian Order and of the crusade, as preaching about miracles at this point. In laisse 33 (p. 26), Carcassonne has just been taken by the crusaders and their leader addresses them:
"Heralds went to and fro among the troops shouting: 'Come to the pardon! The abbot of Citeaux is going to address you.' So then they all ran to him and gathered round. The abbot climbed up onto a marble plinth.
'My lords,' he said, 'now you can see what miracles the king of heaven does for you, since nothing can stand against you. In the name of God I forbid you to keep any of the town's wealth for yourselves, not so much as the value of a bit of charcoal, for if you did, we would instantly excommunicate and curse you. We shall give it all to some powerful lord who with God's grace will hold and keep this country so that the wicked heretics can never retake it.' All present agreed to the conclusion the abbot laid before them."
It is the first explicit reference to miracles in the Canso and it comes from the preaching of the Cistercian legate. Like his fellow Cistercian Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay, he invokes the theme of divine will consistently -- in every sentence if William of Tudela's account of his speech is indeed representative. Perhaps this is only a summary of the actual speech Arnau Amalric delivered and he preached explicitly about miracles of the sort which occur in Peter's Historia. Alternatively, he may only have described the two victories of the crusaders at that time as the working of divine will. In his speech, as in William's account, there is nothing overtly supernatural which is used to demonstrate the action of divine intervention.
THE SECOND MENTION
In laisse 54 (p. 35), William recounts a raid by Pierre-Roger de Cabaret on the crusaders' siege engines just outside of Carcassonne. Although initially successful, the raid was to be repulsed by William of Contres, a crusader knight charged with defending the city.
"Sir Peter Roger and his men did not flinch, they dismounted, smashed the mangonels in sight of all the bystanders, and used straw to set them alight. The fire blazed up, and if there had been a breath of wind all the engines would have burned at once, but God did not want this."
The next laisse describers the sortie and subsequent melee in which the raiders were driven off. Laisse 54 presents one of the few occasions on which God's opinion on the course of events is portrayed in the Canso. God "did not want" the complete destruction of the siege engines. William stops short of portraying God holding the winds still so that the engines would not be burned, but he is clear enough in describing their rescue as provident.
THE THIRD AND FOURTH MENTIONS
Only a few stanzas later, William of Tudela proceeds to describe the siege and fall of Termes in laisses 56-58 (pp. 36-37):
"No one ever saw so numerous a garrison as there was in that castle, men from Aragon, Catalonia and Roussillon. Many were the armed encounters and shattered saddle-bows, many the knights and strong Brabanters killed, many the ensigns and fine banners forcibly borne off into the keep against the crusaders' will. As for the mangonels and catapults, the defenders did not think them worth a button. Meat they had in plenty, both fresh meat and salt pork, water and wine to drink and an abundance of bread. If the Lord God had not dealt them a blow, as he did later when he sent them dysentery, they would never have been defeated.
My lords, will you hear how Termes was taken and how Christ Jesus there displayed his mighty power?
Nine months the army sat around that stronghold until its water supply dried up. They had wine for another two or three months, but I do not think anyone can live without water. Then, God and the faith help me, there was a heavy downpour of rain which caused a great flood, and this led to their defeat. They put quantities of this rainwater into butts and barrels and used it to knead and cook with. So violent a dysentery seized them that the sufferers could not tell where they were. They all agreed to flee away rather than die like this, unconfessed. ...
When it was known throughout the land that Termes had fallen, all the strongest castles were abandoned, and Le Bezu was taken, without any need for sieges. The men of these garrisons who left the castles never supposed that the crusaders would get that far. God who is full of mercy worked a great miracle there, for he gave finer weather than anyone has known in summer. I return to my subject, which I have left too long."
This is the closest William of Tudela ever comes to portraying divine intervention as Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay does, yet he describes nothing supernatural. He is clear that it is God in a display of "mighty power" who sends dysentery into Termes, yet he is also clear in tracing the origin of the outbreak to the rainwater collected in the "butts and barrels" of the defenders. Thus, William describes only mundane events, although he finds them so fortuitous as to ascribe them to God. Similarly, the fine winter weather of 1210/11 is a "great miracle" allowing the crusaders to push further than expected and capture undefended fortresses.
THE FIFTH MENTION
Pierre-Roger de Cabaret, the lord who mounted the raid on the siege engines outside of Carcassonne, described above, had captured a prominent crusading knight, Bouchard de Marly, and held him prisoner in Cabaret. In the spring of 1211, crusading reinforcements arrived in Carcassonne in such numbers that Pierre-Roger rethought his position and decided to make peace with Simon de Montfort and his crusaders. In the only part of the Canso in which William of Tudela describes human decision-making as miraculous, he writes in laisse 63 (pp. 39-40):
"Count Peter of Auxerre, Robert of Courtenay and the precentor of Paris, as the book says, brought a very strong force from the Paris region and entered Carcassonne. Hear what a miracle Jesus did there, as the book tells you-
The men in Cabaret were very alarmed at the arrival of this contingent, and one morning very early Peter Roger, lord of Cabaret, went to see his prisoner Sir Bouchard in the room where he lay in irons.
'Bouchard,' he said, 'I know you have a noble heart, you are a true and valiant man and would never do anything that should not be done. I don't know whether I shall meet with thanks and compassion if I set you free, but I am going to take the risk.'"
Pierre-Roger then released Bouchard, provided him with a bath and a haircut, new clothes and a horse, and gave himself and his castle into his former prisoner's custody. Bouchard -- "never had he known such happiness since the day his mother gave him birth" -- rode to meet de Montfort in Carcassonne and explained the situation. The leader of the crusade, happy to be reunited with Bouchard and to obtain Cabaret without a nearly impossible siege, accepted Pierre-Roger's nearly unconditional terms and treated him honourably. William of Tudela continues in laisse 66 (pp. 40-41):
"That is how Cabaret was taken, and how our crusaders manned its castle.
See what a miracle it was, for if all the people ever born in the world surrounded that fortress, the defenders would think them worth less than a peeled apple, it is so strong. But against the host of Christ no castle, no citadel can stand, however strong its battlements. Only a fool opposes the crusaders, a fool who may rejoice at first but in the end must be defeated."
It is unclear, perhaps, exactly where the miracle actually occurred if William of Tudela means a supernatural divine intervention into the course of events. Indeed, this passage seems to confirm that when William refers to a "miracle" he means only a fortuitous turn of events. Unlike Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay, he never records that God directly intervened to cause anyone to make a certain decision. The "miracle" here is merely that the crusaders unexpectedly gained possession of a strong fortress.
THE SIXTH MENTION
If there is a single passage which clearly illustrates the very different views of miracles between William of Tudela and Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay, it is in laisse 74 (p. 44). Count Baldwin (brother of Count Raymond of Toulouse), the sometime patron of William of Tudela, is besieged inside Montferrand by Simon de Montfort and the crusaders:
"But brave Count Baldwin and his knights put up a stubborn defence. They threw blazing fire onto the brushwood in the ditch and burned it up; but the attackers immediately flung in just as much more. It was a great miracle almighty Jesus did for them in preventing their capture in this first attack."
Here, then, God intervenes against the crusaders. The miracle protects their opponent and thwarts their efforts. It is unlikely that William of Tudela meant to imply that God was not generally on the side of the crusade. After all, Count Baldwin surrendered shortly thereafter and subsequently joined the crusade. However, the idea that "almighty Jesus" might work a miracle for the opponents of Simon de Montfort could never occur in Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay's Historia. In Peter's framework, miracles are the demonstration of divine will controlling the course of the war. In this passage, William of Tudela shows his very different understanding of the term. This "miracle" is just another unexpected mundane event -- fortuitous, in this case, for Count Baldwin and not for the crusade.
THE SEVENTH MENTION
In the summer of 1212, Moissac fell to a crusader siege. William of Tudela uses the term "miracle" again to describe a seemingly mundane event in laisse 123 (pp. 61-62):
"At Moissac the catapults battered the walls all day long, breaking them down and opening breaches, so that it is not surprising the defenders took fright, for they could expect no help from anyone. It was a full month since the count of Toulouse had gone to see Savari at Bordeaux and he never got a pennyworth of good out of doing so, except that he recovered his son and paid a large sum over to Savari.
I return to my subject and do not intend to leave it. Let me tell you briefly of a miracle that Jesus the righteous did for the crusaders: a great section of the wall now fell into the moat and opened a way in.
No need to ask you if the citizens were terrified when they saw this, and the mercenaries too. They tried to make an agreement with the count of Montfort, but he swore by all the saints of the Holy Land that he would not let one of them escape alive unless they handed over the mercenaries who had caused them so much trouble. I don't know what more I could tell you if I talked all day, except that they loved their own selves better than wife or brother, cousin or kinsman."
Like the other "miracles" mentioned by William of Tudela, this one does not challenge the reader's credulity. Before his brief digression about the count of Toulouse's whereabouts, William mentioned the catapults opening breaches in the walls. After the digression, a section of those walls falls. Like the other "miracles", this one is not supernatural; it is merely a sudden beneficial turn of events.
THE EIGHTH MENTION
The crusader William of Contres, who drove off the raid against the siege engines at Carcassonne described above, accomplished further exploits in 1212 which were mentioned by William of Tudela. In laisse 121 (p. 61) he was the first of five knights mentioned who saved Simon de Montfort when his warhorse was killed and he was surrounded by enemies at the siege of Moissac. In laisse 127 (p. 63) William of Contres leads a small force and routs a large company of mercenaries near Castelsarrasin, chasing them "all the way to Montauban, drowning many in the Tarn." After this battle, two other similar ones are recounted in laisses 128-130 (p. 64) when William of Contres leads another attack against mercenaries.
"Not one pennyworth of plunder did Sir William let the robbers keep. He and the resolute men he had brought here from Burgundy and France utterly defeated them all.
William of Contres, as I told you, defeated all the mercenaries, recovered their plunder and captured their horses and pack animals. They ravaged the country around Castelsarrasin on another occasion, but I promise you they never got away with anything belonging to him, not so much as would cost two coins from Poitou; on the contrary, they were beaten and flung themselves into the Tarn. Sir William's horse was struck by five or six darts, and Sir William fell to the ground in the sight of all his friends. Valiant man that he was, he leaped to his feet, grasped his sword and shouted his warcry, 'St Denis!' the Paris cry. My lord Moreau spurred his fine costly charger and all the others rode up to help him. In the melee and confusion they were not sure they could save him or prevent his capture. 'God help us!' they shouted and 'St Denis!' Then you would have seen many a squire of his company killed and his warden severely injured. But Sir William mounted a spirited horse, charged the mercenaries and thrust them back, right into the waters of the Tarn; and then he began to laugh about his fall.
My lords, God did many great miracles for Sir William of Contres, a man who took so much trouble that everyone who saw him liked him at once. Certainly no better man ever came here on crusade from Burgundy, nor ever will, unless a still richer and greater lord arrives."
It appears that William of Tudela did not intend to recount all of the "many great miracles" he refers to, although the victories he has just recounted and the close call from which William was rescued serve as examples. It is typical of William of Tudela's use of of the term "miracle" that these are not supernatural in nature. He does not need to explain what the other "miracles" were in order for us to understand that Sir William of Contres was repeatedly and fortuitously successful.
William of Tudela's part of the Canso ends abruptly at laisse 131 (p. 65), just as Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay's much longer Historia did. Neither author seems to have had the opportunity to bring their narrative to a close.
While both authors held positions in the Catholic church and both sided with the crusaders, there are clear differences in their portrayals of the crusade. For Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay, his story was that of God acting through His crusading army to enforce His will. For William of Tudela, it was a story of mundane events completely without supernatural intervention where a "miracle" was merely an unexpected benefit that could befall either the crusaders or their opponents. It is through this contrast that we can see just how extreme Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay's narrative framework was.
In the next post, we will examine the role of miracles and divine intervention in the Anonymous continuation of William of Tudela's Canso.
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