296 Giano della Bella
grave. Moreover, excessively intense mourning, concern
about the soul of the departed, or obsession with the
afterlife might imply a lack of faith in the reality and
absolute justice and mercy of God.
GHOSTS DURING THE MIDDLE AGESFear and belief in the apparition of ghosts as a device in
literature and in traditional religious belief did not disap-
pear from the Christian medieval world. Italian, Ger-
manic, Scandinavian sagas, and almost all vernacular
literature mentioned dead people who returned to proph-
esy, inform, avenge themselves on, or even maliciously
punish the living. They were linked with natural phe-
nomena, certain locations, objects, and activities. The
word was based on the Old Germanic gastand was linked
with demons. The ghost or revenant might have to stay in
one place because of his or her crime or sin. He or she
might appear human or in an animal shape, headless, on
fire, colored or not colored; appear tortured; or leave
behind a sign. They could be resisting death or could
have been disturbed from their graves by some event.
Such stories with varying degrees of ecclesiastical, liter-
ary, or satirical concern can be found in the writings
of BEDE,GUIBERTof Nogent, ORDERICUSVitalis, WILLIAM
of Malmesbury, the ANGLO-SAXONCHRONICLES,GERALDof
Wales, SAXO GRAMMATICUS, Dante ALIGHIERI, Giovanni
BOCCACCIO, and MARIE DEFRANCE.
THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF GHOSTSOver the course of the Middle Ages, the church sought to
accommodate these beliefs and fears within its authority
and control, perhaps even to promote belief in ghosts and
even profit from it. To suggest the value of intercession
for the dead, Pope GREGORYI the Great wrote stories
about dead people who spoke to the living to request
their prayers for help in the afterlife. From the 11th and
12th centuries, ghosts were common in ecclesiastical lit-
erature and in pastoral care. In a collection of miracle sto-
ries composed near the mid-12th century, PETER THE
VENERABLE, the abbot of CLUNY, described ghosts
demanding prayers from monks who had to demand gifts
from the living and descendants of the deceased in order
to fulfill this task. By the 13th century, with PURGATORY
doctrinally defined as the third place and way station in
the afterlife, preachers used didactic and frightening
ghost stories or EXEMPLA to instill fear of the conse-
quences of sin and to spread the doctrine of the value of
prayers and donations to the church to assist the faithful
departed. Souls, while purging their sins in PURGATORY,
asked the living for prayers in order to help expiate their
punishments for sin and thus shorten the length of their
pain in purgatory. They were beyond help if they were in
HELL, and they did not need it in HEAVEN.
At the same time, the church was suspicious of other
kinds of ghost stories that did not mesh with its authority
or pastoral roles. These were deemed clearly demonic and
heretical in inspiration, thus meant to mislead the faithful
and sever clerical authority and mediation between the
divine and human worlds.
See also BEOWULF;DEATH AND THE DEAD; HAGIOGRA-
PHY; HEAVEN; HELL;ICELAND ANDICELANDIC LITERATURE;
MIRACLES; PURGATORY; SUICIDE; VISIONS AND DREAMS.
Further reading:Andrew Joynes, ed., Medieval Ghost
Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels, and Prodigies
(Woodbridge, England: Boydell Press, 2001); Ronald C.
Finucane, Appearances of the Dead: A Cultural History of
Ghosts(Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1984); Carlo
Ginzburg, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults
in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,trans. John and
Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1983); Alexander Murray, Suicide in the Middle
Ages; Vol. 1,The Violent against Themselves; Vol. 2,The
Curse on Self-Murder(Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1998–2000); Jean-Claude Schmitt, Ghosts in the Middle
Ages: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society,trans.
Teresa Lavender Fagan (1994 Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1998).Giano della Bella (ca. 1240–ca. 1305) Florentine
politician
Descendant of a wealthy GUELFFlorentine family, Giano
was the head of the Calimala, the oldest and richest of
the aristocratic trade GUILDS. A conflict with his fellow
nobles caused him to join a democratic party and
become the leader of the guilds or the “Arti Minori” in a
revolt against the government of FLORENCEin 1290. In
1292 he did manage to seize power and reformed the
constitution of the city through the issuance of the anti-
noble “Ordinances of Justice.” In 1293 he was elected
prior or head of the city, and he created a strong govern-
ment to fight aristocratic control. Accused of breaking
his own laws, he was overthrown by a coalition of Pope
BONIFACEVIII, the local aristocracy, and Charles II of
Anjou (r. 1289–1309), king of NAPLES, which accom-
plished his exile. Giano then retired from the political
scene in 1295 and resided as an exile in FRANCEuntil his
death in about 1305.
Further reading:Dino Compagni, Dino Compagni’s
Chronicle of Florence,trans. Daniel Bornstein (Philadel-
phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986); Marvin B.
Becker, Florence in Transition,2 vols. (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1967–1968).Gilbert de la Porée SeeGILBERT OFPOITIERS.Gilbert of Poitiers(Gilbert de la Porée, Gilbert Porreta)
(1076–1154)commentator on sacred Scripture, metaphysi-
cian, teacher
Gilbert of Poitiers was born in 1076 and studied the
SEVEN LIBERAL ARTSat Poitiers under Bernard of Chartres