38

This article aims to examine the status of religion in the Chanson de Roland, and its evolution during the twelfth century, by comparing the Oxford and Châteauroux versions. While in the Oxford version the emphasis is on religion as a ritual system and on the temporal protection granted by the true God, in the Châteauroux version, on the other hand, the emphasis is on the love of God and the individual salvation. But at the same time, there seems to be a stronger clerical framework. This clerical framework, while allowing for a secular appropriation of the relationship to God, strives to keep it within a fixed institutional framework.