GUERNES DE PONT-SAINTE-
MAXENCE
(fl. 1170s). An itinerant cleric born north of Paris and known as Guernes composed
between 1172 and 1174 the first and most important French Vie de saint Thomas Becket
in 6,180 Alexandrines in monorhymed five-line stanzas. An edifying biography and a
well-documented chronicle, this masterpiece, written in terse language and pregnant with
emotion, extols the saint’s life and describes his recent tragic death (1170). With its
fastidious care for accuracy (on-the-spot investigations, personal perusal of written
sources), this hagiographical poem, full of evangelical echoes and of outstanding literary
quality, has indisputable historic importance. The poem has come down to us in six
Anglo-Norman manuscripts, only three of which contain the complete work.
Annette Brasseur
[See also: BIOGRAPHY; HAGIOGRAPHY]
Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence. La vie de saint Thomas Becket, ed. Emmanuel Walberg. Paris:
Champion, 1936. [Based on MS B (Wolfenbüttel, Bibl. de Brunsvick, August. in 4°, 34.6).]
Walberg, Emmanuel. La tradition hagiographique de saint Thomas Becket avant la fin du XIIe
siècle. Paris: Droz, 1929.
GUERRE DU BIEN PUBLIQUE
. See ARISTOCRATIC REVOLT
GUERRE FOLLE
. See ARISTOCRATIC REVOLT
GUERRIC D’IGNY
(ca. 1070/80–1157). Born at Tournai, Guerric was probably educated in the cathedral
school there and may have been magister in the school before he adopted a solitary life
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