Gospels 305difficult access to gold only by long caravan from the
Sudan and western Africa to the Mediterranean, the dis-
tant mines of TRANSYLVANIA, and from exchange in TRADE
with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world, where
gold was still present and more readily available. The
commercial profits of its merchants enabled Italian cities
to mint gold COINAGEin significant quantities in the sec-
ond half of the 13th century.
POWER AND PRESTIGEEverywhere social prestige was linked with and displayed
in the possession of gold bullion and gold work, especially
when it facilitated display and largesse. Monarchs in the
late antique world and the early Middle Ages, such as the
emperors of Byzantium, were sometimes able to buy peace
and security from barbarian tribes or threatening maraud-
ers with gold. In addition, they controlled their own offi-
cials, armies, and subjects in the same manner. Gold was
prominent in their courts; on their tables in form of cups,
vases, and plates; and on their persons in the clothing of
kings worn to enhance beauty, show their valor, and asso-
ciate the owner and wearer with victory, generous feast-
ing, the possibility of lucrative patronage, and loyalty.
ARTISTIC SYMBOLIC VALUEIn PAINTING, decoration, and MOSAICthroughout the Mid-
dle Ages, especially in Christianity, gold had a rich sym-
bolic function. In painting, it was suggested to have a
spiritual aspect, almost immortality, and a connection
with divinity, especially when used to portray the splen-
dors of HEAVEN, the sky, and the halos of the saints.
Byzantine ICONS were not only the image of a saint,
Christ, or the Virgin MARY, but also possessed, in the
mind of some, an actual living reality and energetic tie to
GOD. The struggle to obtain it, and its very possession,
were also linked with concerns about questionable moral-
ity in SERMONSand in all kinds of popular and didactic
literature. The sins of greed and gluttony were only too
possible, if not necessary, in any circumstance involving
dealing with gold.
See alsoALCHEMY; GHANA; METALSMITHS AND METAL-
WORK, METALLURGY; VIRTUES AND VICES.
Further reading:E. W. Bovil, The Golden Trade of the
Moors: West African Kingdoms in the Fourteenth Century,
2d ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970); John H.
A. Munro, Wool, Cloth, and Gold: The Struggle for Bullion
in Anglo-Burgundian Trade, 1340–1478(Toronto: Univer-
sity of Toronto Press, 1972); John T. Swanson, The Not-
Yet-Golden Trade: Contact and Commerce between North
Africa and the Sudan, to the Eleventh Century A.D.(Ann
Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1980).
Goliardic poets They were 12th-century satirical
poets cleverly critical of contemporary society and the
church. The etymology of Goliardhas been disputed; it
might have referred either to galaor “gluttony”; or to the
biblical giant Goliath, a symbol of evil, or to a mythical
poet called Golias. This name goliardswas given in the
12th century to disreputable poet-clerics who had usually
abandoned their prebends to squander their incomes or
had been disciplined by their clerical superiors and were
wandering from town to town and congregating with stu-
dents in taverns near the new schools. In some 13th-cen-
tury texts, the Goliards appeared as clerics or students
with depraved morals who were threatened by the church
with the loss of their privileged clerical status. Now the
term serves to designate the authors of a genre of
medieval Latin poetry primarily from the 12th century.CONTENT OF THEIR POETRY
Their poems often dealt with hedonistic themes in open
opposition to traditional Christian morality about wine
and drinking, amusements of all sorts, and forlorn and
carnal love with considerable bitterness toward and sus-
picion of women. They were set in the context of youth, a
joy of living, an appreciation of the gifts of nature, and a
love of a particular national group. Goliardic poetry
reflected the intellectual and scholarly innovation of the
12th century, with its increased social and geographical
mobility, the development of schools, the new money
economy, and an increased discovery of the beauties of
nature. Goliardic poems criticized the excessive wealth of
the church, the sexual and material vices of the CLERGY,
the arrogance of NOBLES, and the crass power of new and
excessive moneyed classes. Some poems were parodies of
pious liturgical texts. Others contained references to
ancient authors, especially the disgraced and exiled Ovid.
Some of these oral poems and songs were eventually col-
lected; the best known was the CARMINABURANA.Most
were anonymous; others have been reasonably attributed
to known authors.
See alsoANTICLERICALISM; SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES.
Further reading:David Parlett, trans., Selections from
the Carmina Burana: A Verse Translation (Har-
mondsworth: Penguin Books, 1986); Karl Breul, ed., The
Cambridge Songs: A Goliard’s Song Book of the XIIth Cen-
tury (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1915);
George F. Whicher, ed., The Goliard Poets: Medieval Latin
Songs and Satires (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press,
1979); Helen Waddell, The Wandering Scholars,7th ed.
(London: Collins, 1968).Gospels(good news) The word was applied from the
second century to the narratives and descriptions of the
message of Jesus Christ. There were numerous apoc-
ryphal gospels not considered authentic and faithful to
Christ’s message by the medieval church; the four canoni-
cal Gospels of Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
were considered to embody the essence of Christian reve-
lation and so were believed to contain the “good news” of