According to Maier, "some of Bertrand's collections seem to have been among the most popular sermon materials of the later middle ages." Among the reasons for the general popularity of Bertrand's body of writings may have been his positions of authority within the Church. In 1328-1329 Bertrand became administrator general of the Francisican Order and ended his life as the cardinal bishop of Tusculum. Yet Dr. Maier notes that is is difficult to know if this popularity extended specifically to Bertrand's crusades sermons. It is likely, based on the few copies that survive, that his crusades sermons were not as popular as his other sermons, for which many copies survive.
Another explanation for the apparent lack of enthusiasm for Bertrand's crusading sermons among his contemporaries is the possibility that he did not write them. SUNY historian Patrick Nold, perhaps the most active and focused scholar currently working on Bertrand de la Tour, has argued there is no manuscript evidence Bertrand authored the sermons edited by Maier.(1) Indeed, there are several indications in MSS colophons that the sermons were the work of a Franciscan named Petrus Petri Burgensis (about whom we know very little).
Dr. Nold's 2004 book, Pope John XXII and His Franciscan Cardinal: Bertrand de la Tour and the Apostolic Poverty Controversy [Clarendon Press] is among the most recent scholarly English publications on the preacher. Nold offers a new view of the significance of Bertrand in the Apostolic poverty controvery arguing that the cardinal's role has been greatly underestimated.
Select Bibliography
Christoph T. Maier. Preaching the Crusades. Mendicant Friars and the Cross in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, fourth series 28; Cambridge University Press, 1994).
Christoph T. Maier. Crusade Ideology and Propaganda: Model Sermons for the Preaching of the Cross (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Patrick Nold. "Bertrand de la Tour, OMin. Life and Works," Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 94 (2001), 275-323.
Patrick Nold. "Bertrand de la Tour, OMin. Manuscript List and Sermon Supplement," Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 95 (2002), 1-52
Patrick Nold. Pope John XXII and his Franciscan Cardinal: Bertrand de la Tour and the Apostolic Poverty Controversy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003.
Crusades Chroniclers and Authors of Primary Source Texts- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Crusades Preaching and Propaganda- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Christoph T. Maier- Crusades-Encyclopedia
1. Patrick Nold. "Bertrand de la Tour, OMin. Life and Works," Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 94 (2001), 275-323.
(c) Andrew Holt, June 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.