Popular Religion

Abstract

Many of the manifestations of popular religion are reflected in Rodul-fus Glaber’s Histories. a work which the author completed in the four or five years before 1050 and dedicated to St. Odilo, abbot of Cluny. Glaber, who was placed in a monastery by his uncle at the age of twelve, showed little aptitude for the monastic calling and, in fact, soon became one of those monks, not in those days uncommon, who wandered from monastery to monastery. Because William, abbot of St. Bénigne at Dijon, was sufficiently discerning to appreciate Glaber’s flair for investigation and narrative, it was at Dijon that he commenced his history. On William’s death he moved to Cluny, where he passed the rest of his life and finished the work.