possessions. Long after his trial and execution, Gilles de Rais was associated in Breton
oral tradition with the story of Bluebeard, although that legendary figure has come down
to us in folklore as a killer of successive wives, not children.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: NECROMANCY]
Bataille, Georges. Le procès de Gilles de Rais. Paris: Pauvert, 1972.
Benedetti, Jean. Gilles de Rais. New York: Stein and Day, 1972.
Bossard, Eugène. Gilles de Rais maréchal de France dit Barbe Bleue, 1404–1440. Paris:
Champion, 1886.
Bourdeaut, A. Chantocé, Gilles de Rais et les ducs de Bretagne. Rennes: Société d’Histoire et
d’Archéologie de Bretagne, 1924.
Hérubel, Michel. Gilles de Rais, ou, la fin du monde. Paris: Picollec, 1993.
Hyatte, Reginald, trans. Laughter for the Devil: The Trials of Gilles de Rais, Companion-in-Arms
of Joan of Arc (1440). Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984.
RALPH OF LAON
(d. 1134/36). Brother and collaborator of Anselm of Laon, Ralph shares in the authorship
(or, perhaps more accurately, editorship) of the commentary on the Bible that eventually
became known as the Glossa ordinaria. Certain other commentaries on the Psalms and
the epistles of Paul also bear his name. Ralph appears to have assisted as well in the task
of collecting theological opinions, some touching dogma, but most dealing with
contemporary pastoral concerns, used for clerical instruction in the cathedral school at
Laon.
Mark Zier
[See also: ANSELM OF LAON; BIBLE, CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION OF;
GLOSSA ORDINARIA]
Landgraf, A. “Familienbildung.” Biblica 13 (1932):65–72.
——.“Untersuchungen.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 8 (1936):345–47.
RAMPILLON
. Situated on a gentle rise in a fertile plain and surrounded by farms, the church of Saint-
Éliphe at Rampillon (Seine-et-Marne) is a High Gothic cathedral in miniature. It is 122
feet long, and the vaults rise only 46 feet, about a third the height of Reims. Following
the High Gothic format, the nave is divided into three stories (nave arcade, triforium, and
clerestory), yet because of its smallness the triforium is the same height as the clerestory
and only half the size of the nave arcade. Since the triforium is a passageway related to
human size, its height establishes the scale of the church. Thus, by this change in the
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