WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

This, in turn, makes the sheep “odisse vstimentum suum” ‘hate their own clothing.’ The heretic,
therefore, makes Christianity into a type of outward show and metaphor which turns good to evil
and evil to good depending on the circumstances.
Vladimiri’s rhetoric of “lupi” ‘wolves’ and “falsis fructibus” ‘false fruits’ alludes to the
tradition of thinking heresy as a type of metaphor by saying that the Order is heretical—that,
following Hostiensis, it makes authority contingent upon a belief in the reality of representation
and not upon a universal objective truth. 95 Therefore, Vladimiri is not simply attacking the Order
but arguing against the presentation of truth as a metaphor. This is evident in how he reduces the
majority of the Order’s crimes to falsification and simulation. He accuses the Teutonic Knights
of lying by really holding a private and not religious aim; 96 of falsifying the Papal bulls and
imperial mandates to justify an attack on the Poles; 97 of pretending to practice poverty while
holding lands and castles; 98 and even of falsifying the value of money by making their own
coin. 99 The Order simulates everything: law, land, religious directives, and money. They even
95 Belch 1.692-693.
96 “Dictique conventus ipsorum, castra, sive loca, non religiosa sive religiosi, sed profana; non publica, sed privata”
‘And their said convents, castles, or other places, have no religious [profit] or profit to religious men, but profane
[profit]; they are not [made for] the public [good], but for private [gain]’ (Belch 2.925).
97 “volentes dicti Fratres, publici et notorii haeretici taliter existentes, per falsitates, per falsaque media aliena
dominia isto modo obtinere suamque haeresim huiusmodi alii qualiter colorare, utebantur et utuntur quibusdam
litteris privilegiis sive bullis praetensis” ‘the said willing Brothers, existing heretics publicly and notoriously,
through falsities, and through false means, used and now use to obtain foreign lordship in this way and to color their
heresies of these modes to others by these same pretended letters or papal bulls [My emphasis]’ (Ibid. 2.918).
98 “quamvis dicti Fratres, taliter profitentes Deo voveant solemniter prout vovent paupertatem velle se tenere—cui
repugnat habere rerum dominium—necnon subiectionem et obedientiam in manibus praestitam aliorum…
nihilominus tamen dicti Fratres…non solum tenent et etiam tenuerunt possessiones et terrarium dominia,
degenerantes et etiam recedentes a paupertate Deo…sed etiam principantes et dominantes in subditis terrarium et
dominiorum” ‘however said Brothers, in such a way professing to God accordingly vow and would make a vow
solemnly to will themselves to hold poverty—for which it is repugnant to hold lordship of things—even less
performed subjection and obedience by the hands of others…notwithstanding said Brothers…not only hold and even
used to hold possessions and lordship of lands, declining and even withdrawing from the poverty of God…but also
governing and lording in subjects of lands and kingdoms’ (Ibid. 2.926-927).
99 “quod praedicti Fratres monetam cudentes propriam et cudere facientes, licet iniquam et iniustam…ad tantum
ipsam diminuerunt in pondere et valore diminutamque fecerunt quod, ubi prius una marca eiudem
monetate…valuit…vix nunc valet dimidium floreni, vel tres partes de uno floreno” ‘That the aforesaid Brothers,
making to beat and beating their own money, which is wrong and unjust…so much that they diminished it in weight
56