The necromancer and the abbot: summoning the dead in Cistercian exempla

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Cistercian storyteller, Engelhard of Langheim (fl. 1200), recounted two tales in which the living summoned the dead. A saintly abbot orders two young monks on their deathbed to go to heaven and return in seven days to report on their condition, while a necromancer in Spain tells a dying friend that he will bring him back to the world of the living. The abbot succeeds. The young monks appear and assure the abbot of their salvation. The necromancer fails, but his friend still returns to warn of magical practices. This essay compares Engelhard’s two tales and places them in the context of other Cistercian exempla. The stories demonstrate the ambiguous boundaries between magic and religion, Engelhard’s distinction between monastic formation and a university education, and his use of the emotions that the dead elicit to celebrate his Cistercian community.