J

392

Jacob ben Meir SeeTAM,JACOB BENMEIR(RABBENU
TAM).

Jacobus or Jacopo da/de Voragine SeeJAMES OFVOR-
AGINE(JACOBUS DEVORAGINE,JACOPO); GOLDENLEGEND.

Jacopone da Todi (Jacopo de’Benedetti) Blessed(ca.
1230–1306)Franciscan poet
Jacopone da Todi was born to a noble family in Umbria,
probably about 1230. He married and lived a secular life
as a notary. His religious conversion in 1268/9 and retire-
ment from law were results of finding a hair shirt on the
body of his wife when she was killed in an accident at a
party. After starting a life of poverty as a MENDICANT,in
1278 he joined the third order of and eventually became
a friar in the FRANCISCAN ORDER, in which he was linked
to the SPIRITUALFRANCISCANS. During the pontificate of
BONIFACEVIII, Jacopone personally contested the legiti-
macy of the pope’s election. After the pope’s victory over
his opponents, the Colonna cardinals of Jacopone was
sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. He likely served
his sentence of solitary confinement in an underground
cell of the Franciscan convent, of San Fortunato in Todi.
Despite his appealing to Boniface VIII, the EXCOMMUNI-
CATIONagainst him was not removed until the accession
of Benedict XI (r. 1303–04) late in 1303. Jacopone died a
few years later on December 24/25, 1306, in the convent
at Collazzone, near Todi.
In the meantime while in prison, Jacopone wrote
and became known for his 100 or so VERNACULARpoems
called Lauds.These prayerful poems enjoyed wide circu-
lation in the 14th and 15th centuries, especially among
the Franciscans. These mystical poems became part of

the spiritual and religious canon in the later Middle

Ages.

See alsoCELESTINEV, POPE, SAINT, AND THECELES-

TINEORDER.

Further reading:Jacopone da Todi, Jacopone da Todi:

The Lauds,trans. Serge and Elizabeth Hughes (New York:

Paulist Press, 1982); George Terhune Peck, The Fool of

God, Jacopone da Todi(University: University of Alabama

Press, 1980); Evelyn Underhill, Jacopone da Todi, Poet and

Mystic, 1228–1306: A Spiritual Biography(Toronto: J. M.

Dent and Sons, 1919).

Jacquérie The term Jacquérie was based on “Jacques

Bonhomme,” an insulting nickname for rustics, because

of the short jacket they often wore. It came to designate

the revolt of the peasants around PARISin May and June

of 1358. This social rebellion caused such upheaval that

the word became synonymous with any French peasant

revolt.

Launched unplanned from a riot between looters and

peasants on May 29, 1358, at Saint-Leu-d’Esserent, the

Jacquérie spread in a few days into the villages around

Paris, and its influence was felt as far as the neighboring

regions of Champagne and NORMANDY. Always character-

ized by violence against nobles, the uprising looted CAS-

TLESand almost captured the market and town of Meaux.

It was bloodily suppressed on June 10 at Mello, near

Creil, by an army of nobles led by the king of NAVARRE,

Charles II the Bad (1332–87). An aristocratic counterrev-

olution then gave evidence of the nobles’ hatred and fear

of the “nonnobles.”

The Jacquérie was born out of misery and a reaction

of a once-thriving rural world devastated by taxes,