Guibert of Nogent: Brooding on God

To see in that time down to our day, modesty and decency among the ranks of virgins has steadily declined, and the restraint married women ought to possess has not only appeared to evaporate, but it has vanished altogether ... the way they dress is completely different from the simplicity of old: sleeves spread wide open, their tunics worn tight, curled toes on shoes from Cordoba ... every woman thinks she has reached the height of misery if she lacks a reputation among young lovers ... In this, and similar ways, this modern age is corrupted and corrupts, since it contaminates many with diseased ideas, and the infection spreads to others still, for its foulness propagates without end.

Guibert is writing in 1115. He is about 55, became a Benedictine monk at 15 and, after 30 years at the monastery of Saint-Germer de Fly, has been abbot of the small community of Nogent for ten years. It is not a distinguished position and Guibert is hardly a grand figure of his times. Only a few miles away at Laon, Peter Abelard (1079-1142), the most brilliant intellectual of his day, was studying with Archdeacon Anselm (d. 1117), an encounter that soon ended in acrimony and the departure of Abelard for Paris. Not far away, at the royal abbey of St Denis, the energetic Abbot Suger (c. 1081-1151), dedicated to the abbey when still only ten, would soon be flattering the French king Louis VI (r. 1108-37) with a flamboyant church that is the earliest expression of Gothic.