136 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



stance, whom historians generally accept as entirely trustworthy. He 

 was, however, a violent partisan of Urban and Gregory in the Investiture 

 Strife/ He would therefore be inclined to magnify the prestige of 

 Urban II as against Guibert the anti-Pope whenever an opportunity 

 presented itself. But it is a significant fact that Bemold nowhere indi- 

 cates that he was an eyewitness of the presentation of the Greek envoys, 

 nor even that he was present at the council itself.^ These considera- 

 tions alone suggest the exercise of much caution before accepting the 

 fuU account so freely rendered by Gibbon from Bernold's chronicle. 



Moreover, our caution gives rise to serious doubts when we examine 

 the testimony of another writer who, unlike Bernold, is known to have 

 been present at the council. This was Donizo, the friend and biog- 

 rapher of Countess Matilda of Tuscany, who accompanied Urban to the 

 council. Donizo was attached to the retinue of the Countess and thus 

 enjoyed exceptional opportunities as a news-gatherer in diplomatic 

 circles. Several events, such as Guibert's heresies, the conduct of 

 Praxedis, and other public business, engaged his attention and are 

 recorded in his Life 0} Matilda^ but the appeal by the Emperor, which 

 was in all respects the most impressive event that could possibly occur 

 on this occasion, he utterly ignores. The eastern empire is nowhere 

 mentioned as a subject of discussion, much less the taking of oaths by 

 Crusaders to support that empire. Donizo's brief but valuable state- 

 ments possess as much virtue as Bernold's and should be used for the 

 same purpose. He could have no discernible motive in suppressing 

 such an event. 



What We Learn from Chroniclers in Italy and France 



In the same account Bernold maintains that the council consisted of 

 more than thirty-four thousand persons, including bishops from Italy, 

 France, Burgundy, Swabia and Bavaria. After making a liberal allow- 

 ance for exaggeration — because only large figures could impress the 



■ See PoTTHAST, Wegweiser durch Mitlelaller .... for list of his controversial writings. 



•When he says, "Missas quoque nonnunquam extra ecclesiam satis probabiliter, necessitate quidem 

 cogente, celebramus," he is merely justifying the celebration of mass in the open air, sometimes permitted by 

 the Church. 



3 Donizo, Vila Mathildis, in Mignte, Patrol. Lai., cxiwii, 1015. The biography as a whole is poor, as 

 Wattenbach has justly observed (Quellenkunde, 5. Auf., II, 215). On the other hand, Donizo remembered 

 this council distinctly — "quam saepe recordor," he says. 



