TURPIN, Archbishop of Rheims, friend and companion of Charlemagne, and eye witness of the exploits lie relates—such are the names and qualifications assumed by the author of a chronicle in Latin prose narrating the expedition of the Frankish emperor against the Saracens of Spain, and particularly the events that preceded and followed the battle of Roncesvalles (q.v.). That a bishop Turpin existed about this period is admitted, but the very documents in which he is mentioned, state that be was slain at Roncesvalles„ There was also an archbishop Turpin of Rheims (753-800 A.D.), but he has no claim to the description given above; and, in fact, all internal evidence leads to the conclusion that it is a work of the 11th century. It seems to have sprung out of the epic ballads and traditins of the Carlovingian heroes, while these were still iu a com paratively pure condition; hut through the legendary manner in which they are told, there is visible a monkish aim—viz., to encourage the foundation of churches and monas teries, the undertaking of religious wars against the Saracens, and above all, the pilgrim age to San Jago de Compostella. Now, as in the year 1190, a brother of the archbishop of Vienne pope Calixtus II.)obtained by marriage the countship of Galicia; as it was from Vienne that the pscudo-Turpin's chronicle was recommended to the rest of Christendom; as the same archbishop was detected on several other occasions fabyi eating false subsequently, in his quality of pope, lie pronounced the chronicle authentic in a bull of 1122 (the authenticity of which has, however. been
questioned); as he pursued the same family policy in his acts as pope, and in his ser mons in honor of San Jago; finally, as the chronicle of the pseudo-Turpin is very often followed in the MSS. by a dissertation of Cidixtus upon the miracles of San Jago. it Las seemed to critics highly probable either that pope Calixtus wrote the work himself, while yet archbishop of Rheims (circa 1090), or, at least, that he took an important pert in its composition. The book soon acquired a great popularity, was translated into French after 1206, and was made use of by divers chroniclers, as the author or authors of the Chroniques de Saint-Denis, Vincentius Bellovacensis, etc. The chronicle is of great historic value, in spite of all the embellishments it has front time to time received; for, as one of the most ancient traditions of the time of Charlemagne, it has preserved numerous traits and details with more purity and fidelity than the poems of the Carlo vingian cycle, which are generally of later date. The chronicle has been printed in Reit berus's edition of the Scriptures (finnan, 1619; Frank., 1726), but see Ciampi's De Vita Carole Magni et Dolan& llistoria Turpino vulgo tributa (1822), and G. Paris's De Pseudo Turpi no (Par. 1865).