From Satanic Minister to Holy Model: The Sacralization of the Medieval Jongleur

Abstract

Few figures in the medieval West were as religiously ambivalent as the medieval jongleur, a broad French term for a popular entertainer. Ecclesiastical authorities typically critiqued jongleurs, aligning them with avarice, folly, and prostitution. However, by the thirteenth century, the jongleur emerged as a more complex figure. Far from being a disciple of the devil, the jongleur could imitate the humility of King David and, by extension, the Passion of Christ. In religious texts and imagery, the jongleur’s embodied performance could exemplify a sacred rite. Showcasing the medieval European jongleur, this article argues that the divide between the sacred and the profane is not as rigid as much scholarship assumes. Ultimately, this study shows the importance of bodily performance in Western medieval religion and therefore complicates the presumed binary between written/Western and embodied/Eastern religiosity.