Church Aflame: The 1112 Fire and Repair of the Cathedral of Laon

Doll, Kristin Laura

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-kbzg-ec44

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Church Aflame: The 1112 Fire and Repair of the Cathedral of Laon

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Religious buildings have always faced the threat of fire, but an unusual number of church fires occurred in northern France during the 12th century. Despite this prevalence, a sustained study on medieval church fires -- including how and why they started, how people responded when they occurred, theological reckonings with the event, and the ways in which communities mobilized their resources to rebuild churches afterward -- has never been done. This project begins to fill that gap by combining a case study on an individual fire with theory and method from the emerging field of disaster studies, as well as contributions from urban and fire studies, to analyze this phenomenon. A fire that damaged Laon Cathedral in Picardy, France is the case study at the center of this dissertation. It burned in the context of a citizens’ uprising against a corrupt bishop on 25 April 1112. Two particularly rich sources offer perspectives on the events surrounding the fire. The first is a chronicle known as Monodiae (“Solitary Songs”), written by Guibert of Nogent, the abbot of a nearby monastery and an eyewitness to many of the events. The second is De miraculis sancte Marie Laudunensis (“The Miracles of Saint Mary of Laon”), compiled by monastic Herman of Tournai more than thirty years later. These sources reveal that the cathedral burned in part because of situations common in communities of that place and time, including urban density and exposed wooden ceiling beams. Salvage efforts were present but minimally effective because of the social unrest during the uprising. Both authors struggle with the theological implications of the events, but see the clergy’s solution to raise funds for church repairs -- regional tours known as quêtes with the cathedral’s relics of the Virgin Mary -- as a re-introduction of divine healing and generosity into communities shattered by sin.

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