The Good
Fantasy/Ideal
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Knights
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The same Stephan made a fortification out of a house which his father had built at a distance of one league from the abbey. He enclosed it with a mound and a moat, fortified it with wooden towers and stockades, and began to force the serfs of the abbey by threats and tortures to do service to him. Distraught by these injuries, Abbot Ponce admonished his vassal Stephen that she should come to trial. For long he contemptuously refused. Upon the council of his friends, however, he gave hostages. The trial was set in the court of the abbot. The judges, after hearing both sides, gave this judgment. Stephen ought to return the fortification to the abbot, who could destroy it as much as he pleased. In the churchyard, between his church and the house, he should allow a passage to the chaplains of the church. For a long time Stephen delayed complying with this judgment and did not surrender the fortress to the abbot. But when the abbot started to open a path through the churchyard, Stephen with an armed band assaulted the monks who were tere, hurling at them both missiles and insulting words. Then, upon leaving he came to his fortress and threw out the guards of the abbot who were there. He did not cease ravaging the lands of the abbey. Among other ills, he invaded a cell in which six monks were permanently residing. He arrogantly expelled the monks and destroyed their possessions.
[Cartulary of the Abbey of Savigny]
Speed, Peter, ed. Those Who Fought. New York: Italica Press, 1996.
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The Bad
Realistic/Criticism
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