Abstract EN:

If Gilles le Muisit (1272-1353) - Saint-Martin of Tournai's Benedictine abbot and author of four Latin treatises, including two chronicles, as well of two administrative reports and thousands French verse isn't completely unknown, he isn't nevertheless studied a lot. We try to repair this injustice by showing in a global vision and in the same time in more precise studies the richness and the specificity of these important works, from the particular angle of the human sensibility and the religious inspiration. We lay stress on the author's thoughts, about historical account and his writing, as well as the nature and the inspiration of his pieces of poetry; among them he notably develops a moral autobiography (the friend and the blind old man). We show his era's description (about laymen and ecclesiastics). We have to particularly pay attention to the lively debate against women, as well as the evocation about different miracles and wonders, but above all the three extraordinary events of 1349 (plague, destruction of Jewish people, coming of the flogging men). These events appear as very important for him and he tries to explain them in a religious meaning. We finally insist on Gilles le Muisit's own spirituality, how he places himself, particularly in relation to the aspirations of the beguines, the mendicant orders and the months. His religious thought is deeply ascetical (against the world, the flesh and the devil, and expressing a sincere marian devotion, a real feeling of repentance and an ars moriendi), but also mystical with a reflection about the world's destiny through the observation of signs of time, astrological predictions and the belief in the action of providence. The author raises queries about the modalities and finalities of his speech. A study of the miniatures throws light on the main themes that we studied. Engaging personality of whom we draw a portrait, Gilles deserves to take place among the different chroniclers and moralists of the middle ages.