Goswin of Bossut

[4] Oral tradition from Villers, preserved in the Acta Sanctorum, claims that he was from the village of Bossut [fr].

A certain Gossuinus, probably the monk, is mentioned as a member of the family in a charter issued by Bishop John of Liège [fr] to Aulne Abbey in 1236.

[12] He may have been pushed out during a purge of the more mystical monks after the mystically-inclined Abbot William was transferred to the abbey of Clairvaux in 1237.

The posthumous ascription to him of the Vita Arnulfi is all that allows his other works to be identified on the basis of "sameness of style and expression".

[34] He explains himself in the Life of Ida:If any should ask why, both here and elsewhere, the names of persons included in our narrative are kept under seal of silence, let them know this has been done deliberately.

For if the names were widely published in the ears of many, the persons, if still alive, might either be put to shame by the vituperation of their evil, or else unsuitably uplifted by the praises of their good.

[37] Georg Waitz suggested that the Gesta crucigerorum Rhenanorum, which covers the crusade down to 1219, was written by Goswin.

The two historiae are found in an autograph manuscript kept in Brussels, Royal Library of Belgium, MS II 1658.