Jordan of Laron (or Jordain, from either the Latin form Jordanus or Jordanes) was the Bishop of Limoges from 1023 until his death in 1051.[1] He came from a family of well-connected lower nobility, the Laron clan of Noblac. His relative and namesake Jordan was the first Bishop of Poland.[2]
Adhemar of Chabannes composed a fictional account of the debates that took place at the council of the Peace movement in 1031, and published them as the conciliar minutes under Jordan's name, a forgery which has duped more than one modern scholar. They are assigned to the bishop's authorship in the Patrologia Latina.[3]
Disputed election and consecration
Jordan was elected at the church in Saint-Junien
When Bishop Gerald I died at Charroux in November 1023, tense negotiations ensued to determine his successor. Late in January 1024, at Saint-Junien, Jordan, the lay provost (prepositus) of Saint-Leonard of Noblat and from the ranks of the castellans, was chosen, in opposition to the preference of the family of the Viscounts of Limoges for one of their own.[4] He was quickly shaved and hastily promoted through the various ecclesiastical ranks until he could be consecrated by the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who was an ally of Duke William V of Aquitaine and whose diocese lay within the duke's domains, rather than by the legitimate metropolitan of Limoges, the Archbishop of Bourges, who was close to the French kings.[5] The election of Jordan therefore represented a coup for the duke against the viscounts of Limoges and his nominal suzerain, the king, but it also marked a break with reforms associated with the Peace and Truce of God movement. He was consecrated on 14/21 March in Saint-Jean-d'Angély, which William heavily favoured. The duke and the bishop elect were received with a liturgical celebration at Saint-Martial-de-Limoges, where they spent the night before going to the Cathedral of Limoges for Jordan's investiture the next day.[6]
As a defensive preparation for this election and consecration, Roho and William II, respectively Bishop and Count of the Angoumois region, who were both destined to play roles in the Lenten procession accompanying the consecration, commissioned Adhemar of Chabannes, a monk of the abbey of Saint-Cybard outside the walls of Angoulême, to compile some relevant texts of canon law dealing with episcopal ordination.[6] Adhemar first went to the Cathedral of Angoulême and later to the city of Limoges, leaving marginalia in the manuscripts of the libraries as evidence of his presence, to copy texts and make notes.[7] The final work defended the ordination of bishops per saltum ("by a leap", i.e. raised from non-clerical rank), such as the cases of Jordan and his predecessor, as a guard against highly politicised ecclesiastical procedures.[6]
Excommunication and submission to Bourges
On 24 May (Pentecost) 1024, Gauzlin, Archbishop of Bourges, excommunicated the entire Limousin and appealed for support to his half-brother the king of France, Robert II.[6] At a royal council held in Paris during Pentecost, Gauzlin excommunicated the whole of Aquitaine save the abbey and lands of Saint-Martial.[8] With ducal support, Jordan refused to budge.[6] On 6 March 1025 he was present in a council (placitum) held in the city of Poitiers under Duke William V. One of the purposes of the council was to determine how to pursue the candidacy of William's son by Adalmode, William the Fat, for the vacant Kingdom of Italy.[9] By late in 1025 William's policy had so changed—he needed royal support for his son's Italian ambitions—that the bishop was forced to concede.[10] Jordan, accompanied by one hundred Limousin monks and clerics, journeyed barefoot to Bourges for his consecration by Gauzlin. According to Adhemar, this represented true piety and not defeat, since the penitents could have (successfully, in the monk's mind) appealed Gauzlin's excommunication to Rome on account of his simony.[8]
Cults of Leonard and Martial
During his episcopate Jordan did much to spread the cult of Saint Leonard of Noblac, which up to then was relatively unknown. He asked Fulbert of Chartres and Hildegar of Poitiers in a letter to supply the appropriate hagiography, and the earliest versions of the Vita Leonardi (Life of Saint Leonard) date from this period, sometimes even being ascribed to Jordan's pen. Leonard's vita is therefore a "purely literary creation" originating with Jordan.[11]
From 29 July to 2 August 1029 a local[12] synod was held under Jordan's presidency in Limoges in order to approve a new liturgy and the apostolicity of Saint Martial. The last day of the synod the relics of the saint were moved from his monastery to the cathedral, which was dedicated to Saint Stephen, whose feast day was 3 August, which also happened to be the day Martial had been consecrated as a bishop and was to be the date of the first celebration of his new liturgy. Jordan threatened anyone who denied the apostolicity of Martial with excommunication.[13] The visiting Italian monk Benedict of Chiusa defied this order, reprimanded the monks of Saint-Martial for trying to bypass the ecclesiastical hierarchy and for not holding a general council of the realm (Aquitaine). He reported that everybody in Limoges feared the bishop's decree, and that the canons of the cathedral were thankful for his presence.[13] Adhemar records that new missals were distributed among the ecclesiastical communities of the diocese, perhaps gifts from Jordan.[13]
Regulating the diocese
In September 1027, Jordan and his mother made a donation to the almonry of the abbey of Saint-Martial.[14] On 15 July 1028, according to Geoffrey of Vigeois, Jordan consecrated the monastery of Saint-Pardulf d'Arnac. On 3 September he may have consecrated the cathedral to Saint Stephen.[15]
Around 1035 Jordan granted a castle to a certain Bernard, who swore fidelitas (fealty) to him and promised not to aid the bishop's enemies, nor to deliver the castle over to them, and to surrender the castle upon demand. This transaction contains an early recorded instance of specified exceptions to the above clauses, which were typical of such arrangements at the time.[16]
In 1045 Jordan issued a charter to Duke William VII of Aquitaine regulating the election of future bishops of Limoges.[17] The charter was given "in the presence of noblemen, clergy and laymen".[18] Jordan was present in 1048 when Duke William gave some land for the foundation of a monastery.[17]
↑ Richard Allen Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History: Ademar of Chabannes, 989–1034 (Harvard University Press, 1995), 150. The Aquitanian court of this period maintained contacts with the Holy Roman Empire. Duke William V sent a golden sword with the words ENRICUS IMPERATOR CESAR AUGUSTUS ("Henry, Emperor [and] August Caesar") to the Emperor Henry II. For Jordan of Poland's origins, cf. Michel Rouche, "Aux origines d'une église nouvelle", Colloques Franco-polonais (Lilles: 1985), 43–44.
↑ B. S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul, 987–1040: A Political Biography of the Angevin Count (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 175.
↑ The letters of Fulbert of Chartres to Hildegar of Poitiers (summer 1024) and Duke William V (summer 1024 and 1025) are an important source for this year-and-a-half long dispute.
↑ Landes, 340. A. R. Lewis, The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1965), 330, accuses Jordan and his mother of unlawfully seizing control of some lands belonging to the almonry.
Haute-Vienne is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwest-central France. Named after the Vienne River, it is one of the twelve departments that together constitute Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The neighbouring departments are Creuse, Corrèze, Dordogne, Charente, Vienne and Indre.
The Duke of Aquitaine was the ruler of the ancient region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English, and later French kings.
Saint Martial, called "the Apostle of the Gauls" or "the Apostle of Aquitaine", was the first bishop of Limoges. His feast day is June 30.
Adémar de Chabannes was an eleventh-century French monk, historian, musical composer, and successful literary forger.
William the Great was duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou from 990 until his death. Upon the death of the emperor Henry II, he was offered the kingdom of Italy but declined to contest the title against Conrad II.
The Peace and Truce of God was a movement in the Middle Ages led by the Catholic Church and the first mass peace movement in history. The goal of both the Pax Dei and the Treuga Dei was to limit the violence of feuding endemic to the western half of the former Carolingian Empire – following its collapse in the middle of the 9th century – using the threat of spiritual sanctions. The eastern half of the former Carolingian Empire did not experience the same collapse of central authority, and neither did England.
Leonard of Noblac, is a Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in Haute-Vienne, in the Limousin (region) of France. He was converted to Christianity along with the king, at Christmas 496. Leonard became a hermit in the forest of Limousin, where he gathered a number of followers. Leonard or Lienard became one of the most venerated saints of the late Middle Ages. His intercession was credited with miracles for the release of prisoners, women in labour and the diseases of cattle.
Bernard II was the count of Barcelona, Girona and margrave of Gothia and Septimania from 865 to 878.
Waiofar, also spelled Waifar, Waifer or Waiffre, was the last independent Duke of Aquitaine from 745 to 768. He peacefully succeeded his father, Hunald I, after the latter entered a monastery. He also inherited the conflict with the rising Carolingian family and its leader, Pepin the Short, who was king of the Franks after 751 and thus Waiofar's nominal suzerain.
The Saint Martial School was a medieval school of music composition centered in the Abbey of Saint Martial, Limoges, France. It is known for the composition of tropes, sequences, and early organum. In this respect, it was an important precursor to the Notre Dame School.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Limoges is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the départments of Haute-Vienne and Creuse. After the Concordat of 1801, the See of Limoges lost twenty-four parishes from the district of Nontron which were annexed to the Diocese of Périgueux, and forty-four from the district of Confolens, transferred to the Diocese of Angoulême; but until 1822 it included the entire ancient Diocese of Tulle, when the latter was reorganized.
The Abbey of St Martial was a monastery in Limoges, France, founded in 848 and dissolved in 1791.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Angoulême is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. Originally erected in the 3rd century, the episcopal see is the Angoulême Cathedral. Comprising the département of the Charente, the diocese had traditionally been suffragan to the Archbishopric of Bordeaux, under the old régime as well as under the Concordat, but since 2002 is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Poitiers.
Rodulf was the archbishop of Bourges from 840 until his death. He is remembered as a skillful diplomat and a proponent of ecclesiastical reform. As a saint, his feast has been celebrated on 21 June.
Aimar V Boson His name is also given as Adhemar, Ademar, Adhemir, Aymar, Aymer, or Ademir. was a Viscount of Limoges, a nobleman in the Loire valley in the Duchy of Aquitaine.
Saint Aurelian of Limoges is venerated as a Christian saint. Christian tradition makes him the second bishop of Limoges, and the successor of St. Martial.
William Taillefer, numbered William II or William IV, was the Count of Angoulême from 987. He was the son of Count Arnald II Manzer and grandson of Count William Taillefer I. He stood at the head of the family which controlled not only the Angoumois, but also the Agenais and part of Saintonge. By the time of his death he was "the leading magnate in [the west] of Aquitaine[, but his] eminence ... proved temporary and illusory," evaporating on his death in succession squabbles, revolts and the predations of his erstwhile allies. The principal sources for William's career are Ademar of Chabannes and the anonymous Historia pontificum et comitum Engolismensium.
The Chronicon Aquitanicum is a set of annals covering the years 830 to 930 with several gaps and an added notice on the year 1025. It is found in the "great encyclopedia codex", BN lat. 5239, of the Abbey of Saint Martial at Limoges. Its entries are annotations on an Easter cycle.
Stodilo was the bishop of Limoges from the early 840s until his death. His unusual name may be a corruption of the Latin stolidus, a humble reference to Christian "foolishness" in the eyes of unbelievers.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the largest administrative region in France, spanning the west and southwest of the mainland. The region was created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014 through the merger of three regions: Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes. It covers 84,036 km2 (32,446 sq mi) – or 1⁄8 of the country – and has 5,956,978 inhabitants. The new region was established on 1 January 2016, following the regional elections in December 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
