'Caculatores ac susurratores' : rumeurs, ragots et ouï-dire dans l’hagiographie des abbayes Saint-Pierre et Saint-Bavon à Gand, Xe-XIe siècles

In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the monastic communities of Saint Peter and Saint Bavo in Ghent were involved in a harsh struggle for local prestige. During this conflict, they produced a particularly important series of hagiographic narratives. These texts functioned as literary and stylized “arguments” in a context of ongoing mutual envy and debate. They also allow to perceive how in this conflict a whole range of other utterances were used as well, including a wide variety of rumours and gossip. In a way, this conflictual hagiography contains traces that allow for the development of a kind of typology of rumor and opinio in the Middle Ages. The case of the Ghent abbeys thus provides a good illustration of how rumour and hearsay helped to structure local communities and networks, to shape their identities and social memories, and to build shared values and knowledge