Orderic Vitalis - Religious Life

Religious Life

His monastic superiors rechristened him Vitalis (after a member of the legendary Theban Legion of Christian martyrs) because they found a difficulty in pronouncing his unusual baptismal name. In the title of his great chronicle he prefixes the old to the new name and proudly adds the epithet Angligena, "English-born".

His cloistered life was uneventful. He became a deacon in 1093, and a priest in 1107. He left his cloister on several occasions, speaking of having visited Croyland, Worcester, Cambrai (1105) and Cluny (1132). He turned his attention at an early date to literature, and for many years appears to have spent his summers in the scriptorium.

His first literary efforts were as a continuator of William of Jumièges' Gesta normannorum ducum, a broad history of the Normans and their dukes from the founding of Normandy, which Orderic carried forward into the early twelfth century.

His superiors at some time between 1110 and 1115 ordered him to write the history of St Evroul. The work, the Historia Ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History), grew under his hands until it became a general history of his own age. St Evroul was a house of wealth and distinction. War-worn knights chose it as a resting-place of their last years. It was constantly entertaining visitors from southern Italy, where it had planted colonies of monks, and from England, where it had extensive possessions. Thus Orderic, though he witnessed no great events, was well-informed about them. In spite of a cumbrous and affected style, he is a vivid narrator; his character sketches are admirable as summaries of current estimates. His narrative is badly arranged and full of unexpected digressions, but he relays much invaluable information not provided by more methodical chroniclers. He throws a flood of light upon the manners and ideas of his own age, and sometimes comments with surprising shrewdness upon the broader aspects and tendencies of history. His narrative breaks off in the middle of 1141, though he added some finishing touches in 1142. He reports that he was then old and infirm; probably he did not long survive the completion of his great work.