Circa 1047-Circa 1117
Itinerant Preacher

Marginal People. There are few records of the people who have lived on the margins of society, because most could not themselves read or write nor were they amid others who could write or cared to read or write about them. The only times the lives of marginal people were recorded in the Middle Ages were when they ran into trouble with religious or secular law or were needed to bring others out of trouble. Tribulations and trials were undoubtedly a part of the account. Only under major changes in circumstances do the lives of such figures, as even Robert of Arbrissel, and particularly his followers, come to light.

Background. At the time of Robert's connection with marginalized Christians in 1096 at the monastery of Saint Mary of La Roe, he was already about age fifty, having been born at Arbrissel (now...