WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

falsify their own name since the label “Brothers of the House of Mary of Jerusalem” does not
refer to a real place that exists or had existed in historical memory. 100
Vladimiri characterizes the Order’s violence towards infidelity, therefore, as the violence
of simulation and of metaphoric appearance and hence of heresy:
Item, volentes dicti Fratres simulatores et hypocritae publici et notorii realiter existentes prout
sunt, tamquam falsi prophetae sub praefato religiositatis habitu, velut in vestimentis ovium,
apparere, ut sic rapacitate lupina intrinsecus palliata possent crudelius in homines desaevire,
prout desaeviunt, saevierunt et saevire taliter consueverunt—in homines licet infideles, quos Deus
creavit secundum naturam nobis participes ac proximos.
So willing, the said Brothers, simulators and notorious and public hypocrites thus are appearing,
as if they were false prophets to appear under the aforesaid habit of religion, like in the clothing of
sheep, so that such inward lupine rapacity cloaked, they can cruelly rage, just as they rage, and
they raged, and thusly they are accustomed to rage—in men namely infidels, which God created
according to nature participant and neighbors to us [My emphasis]. 101
In accordance with a view on authority that puts it as a product of human and not divine
interaction, the Order simulates Christian truth by thinking of it as pure “habitu” ‘habit,’
‘clothing,’ or ‘custom.’ The Order falsifies their rage as charity. Thus, they crusade in the guise
of Christian worship against the infidels whom God created “secundum naturam nobis participes
ac proximos” ‘participant and neighbors to us according to nature.’ Like wolves, this desire to
dissimulate is given only to men who “desaevire, prout desaeviunt, saevierunt et saevire taliter
consueverunt,” ‘raging, soon rage, have raged, and are as such accustomed to rage,’ in the
violence of simulation then, now, and in the future—it is proper of men who see “auctoritas”
‘authority’ only as superficial clothing and not as a universal gift from God to humans.
and worth and they made inferior so that, where before was worth one Mark of this same money…now is hardly
worth half a Florent, or three parts of one Florent’ (Ibid. 2.984).
100 “Volentesque dicti Fratres in eorum huiusmodi secta religionem aliquam simulare, ‘Fratres Hospitalis
Ierosolimitani Sanctae Mariae de domo Teutonicorum’ se nominant, nominarunt, et nominare consueverunt, licet
ficte et false: cum sic erat et fuit—sine et absque eo, quod tale hospitale in rerum natura habeatur vel existate, prout
non habetur, nec est, neque fuit, saltem a tanto tempore et per tantum tempus, de quo sit, vel esse possit hominum
memoria.” ‘And these willing Brothers in their ways simulate another religious sect; they call, they called, and
accustom to call themselves ‘Brothers of the Hospital of Holy Mary of Jerusalem of the Teutonic House.’ Let this be
fictitious and false: since such used to be and was—unless and without it, that such a hospital was held in the nature
of things or existence, accordingly it is not had, nor is, nor even was, at least from so much time and through so
much time, from which it was or could be made to be in the memory of men [My emphasis]’ (Ibid. 2.920).
101 Ibid. 2.921.
57