Wonders, prodigies and marvels: Unusual bodies and the fear of heresy in Ralph of Coggeshall's 'Chronicon Anglicarum'

Ralph of Coggeshall's "Chronicon Anglicanum" is traditionally consulted for its narrative of English royal politics and crusading history in the late- twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries. Within this national history there are six short anecdotes, four concerning English wonders and two concerning French religious history. Although previous scholarship suggests that thes e stories are simply random inclusions in the history, it will be argued th at they present and develop a theme of critical importance to the "Chronico n" overall - this being that the unified body of Christian believers is at risk of assault and disintegration. It will be seen that all six stories fo cus on the human body - the abnormal body, the heretical body, the miraculo us body - and that this physical body is a metaphor for the Christian body at its broadest. There is currently strong scholarly interest in medieval w onders and this article indicated the ways in which the unusual, the unaccu stomed and the prodigious all carried great meaning for medieval audiences. In this instance, the unusual bodies described in six stories reflect the concerns of the "Chronicon" and of thirteenth-century Cistercians more broa dly. The main concern, logical for a history describing the Fourth Crusade, is that of possible assault on Christian orthodoxy.