St Odo's St Martin: the uses of a model
Barbara H. Rosenwein
The ideal of sanctity presented in Sulpicius Severus' Vita Martini included a repudiation military life. was concerned to show that Martin true ‘man power’ (potens), but this had nothing do with the army. On contrary, Sulpicius' day, potens was, political sphere, decidedly civilian patron; religious sphere he miracle-worker. Six hundred years later attributes power were no longer same. Social and changes worked transform into warrior. old remained, however; its reactionary effects evident several Cluniac texts, where exemplary men shown leaving tumult battlefield for discipline monastery. Yet within same tenth-century Clumiac milieu an entirely different pattern sointhood, holy warrior, created by St Odo, second abbot Cluny. It model quite unprecedented West, it not new out whole cloth. Rather, persona patterned on form. Its explanation seems lay precisely Odo's literal adherence paradigm, understood light which taken place role potens.
Journal of Medieval History