once, although there is a final echo in some sermons on Penitence preached by Gerson
the following December.
An examination of the documents shows that the quarrel was less between Christine
and the Cols than between Jean de Montreuil and Gerson concerning Jean de Meun’s
influence on public morality. The antifeminist aspect was perhaps accidental but attracted
lasting attention, for although Christine’s position has sometimes been misrepresented,
for the first time a woman dared to defend her sex against traditional clerical misogyny.
Charity Cannon Willard
[See also: ANTIFEMINISM; CHRISTINE DE PIZAN; GAUTIER LE LEU; JEAN
DE MEUN; LE FRANC, MARTIN; ROSE, ROMAN DE LA]
Baird, Joseph L., and Kane, John R., eds. La querelle de la Rose: Letters and Documents. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978.
Hicks, Eric, ed. Le débat sur Le roman de la Rose. Paris: Champion, 1977.
Badel, Pierre-Yves. Le roman de la Rose au XVIe siècle: étude de la réception de l’œuvre. Geneva:
Droz, 1980.
QUATRE FILS AYMON
(or Renaut de Montauban; 18,489 Alexandrines; early 13th c.). The most popular epic of
the Rebellious Vassal Cycle, as evidenced by the great number of manuscripts and
versions in verse and prose composed during the 13th century, as well as numerous
allusions to it. Renaut (Rinaldo) also became, with Roland (Orlando), the protagonist of
the chivalric romances Orlando Innamorato by Boiardo (1495) and Orlando Furioso by
Ariosto (1516–21); Tasso wrote a Rinaldo (1562) and utilized this character in an episode
of Gerusalemme liberata (1580).
After Renaut has killed Charlemagne’s nephew Bertolai in a brawl, he and his three
brothers, sons of Aymon of Dordogne, flee the royal court. With the help of their cousin,
the sorcerer Maugis, and their wonderful horse, Bayard, they first take refuge in the
Ardennes, then in Gascony, where the king marries his daughter to Renaut but later
betrays him under pressure from the king of France. Charlemagne pursues the brothers
relentlessly; only after many tribulations does he consent to make peace, on condition
that Renaut go to Jerusalem and Bayard be surrendered. The horse, thrown into the
Meuse by the emperor himself, escapes into the Ardennes. Returning from Palestine with
Maugis, whom he met in Constantinople, Renaut learns of the recent death of his wife
and, while Maugis retires to a hermitage, leaves his family in order to expiate his faults,
which had caused the death of the duchess. He is killed by jealous colleagues while
helping carry stones for the construction of the cathedral of St. Peter at Cologne; but his
body, thrown into the Rhine, is miraculously saved and returns by itself to be enshrined
in Renaut’s castle in Dortmund.
Hans-Erich Keller
[See also: CHANSON DE GESTE; NANTEUIL CYCLE; REBELLIOUS VASSAL
CYCLE]
Castets, Ferdinand, ed. Les quatre fils Aymon, chanson de geste. Montpellier: Coulet, 1909.
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