Constructions of Sanctity and the Anglo-Saxon Missions to the Continent

314 Pages·2016·13.71 MB·English

J ames Trevor Palmer
Constructions of Sanctity and the Anglo-Saxon Missions to the
Continent (690-900).
Part One.
Dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Department of History, University of Sheffield.
February 2004.
Constructions of Sanctity and the Anglo-Saxon Missions to the
Continent (690-900).
James Trevor Palmer
This thesis explores the literary strategies used by hagiographers in the eighth and
ninth centuries to establish as saintly the careers of those involved in the so-called
'Anglo-Saxon missions to the continent' (c. 690 - c. 789). It offers a fundamental
reassessment of the relationship between the 'missions' and the Carolingian vitae that
commemorated them, one that is based upon new studies of the ways in which the
texts were shaped by their political and cultural contexts, and consequently by the
authors' intentions. The thesis is structured thematically around hagiographical
representations - often fictitious - of the bonds between saints and particular places.
In the first chapter I examine the ways in which saints' Lives reinterpreted why
missionaries left Britain, in order to make the saints appeal to Irish- or Benedictine
influenced audiences. The next two chapters consider how monastic centres (for
example Monte Cassino in Italy) and the papacy in Rome contributed to the image of
the saint as a person spiritual and earthly in particular, the relation ofthe
authority~
vitae to eighth and ninth century ecclesiastical and Benedictine reforms is considered.
Chapter four studies in detail Hygeburg's Vita Willibaldi et Wynnebaldi, and argues
that her account of Willi bald's pilgrimage to the Holy Land should be seen within the
exegetical and liturgical contexts ofEichsUitt in Bavaria, where it was written down.
In the final two chapters I examine the ways hagiographers portrayed the
transformation of the German and Frisian physical and cultural landscapes through
the missionary work and church building of saints like it is argued that,
Boniface~
since most of the evidence for these activities is either spurious or contradictory, the
reputation of the Anglo-Saxon missions as establishing the 'foundations of Christian
Europe' is largely a product of literary responses to a range of problems faced by
communities east of the Rhine between 754 and 888. The thesis concludes with a
discussion of the factors that shaped Carolingian accounts of the missions, and
outlines potential aspects of Carolingian hagiography and the missions that are in
need of further study or re-evaluation.
Contents.
Acknowledgements. p.ll
Note on Translations. p. III
Abbreviations. pp.1V-V
Introd uction. pp. 1-43.
Chapter One: Anglo-Saxon Homelands in Constructions of Sanctity. pp.44-85.
Chapter Two: Monasteries as Institutions of Sanctity. pp.86-126.
Chapter Three: Rome in Representations of Sanctity. pp.127-70.
Chapter Four: Bavarian Sacred Spaces and Willibald's Pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
pp. 171-212.
Chapter Five: Sanctity and the Transformation of Central and Southern Germany.
pp.213-48.
Chapter Six: Sanctity and the Transformation ofFrisia and Saxony. pp.249-90.
Conclusion. pp.291-307.
Bibliography: Primary Sources. pp. 308-313.
Bibliography: Secondary Sources. pp.314-48.
11
Acknowledgements.
Any historical writing, it seems, is the product of the environment in which it was
written, and I must express my debts of gratitude to those who have helped shape
what follows. First and foremost I must thank Sarah Foot: she has been a constant
source of encouragement, advice and inspiration over the last few years, and my
thesis would not have resembled the work it is without the standards she set for it. I
must acknowledge my indebtedness to the University of Sheffield and the Department
of History in particular for showing sufficient confidence in my potential to elect me
to a Departmental studentship to fund my research, and in my third year to give me a
Departmental teaching studentship. Professor Edmund King has been particularly
supportive as Head of Department, but so have the other medievalists, notably Simon
Loseby and Daniel Power. I have gained much from other members of the thriving
postgraduate community at Sheffield. Several people have read or commented upon
parts of the thesis, for which I am grateful, notably Christine Money, Kay Warrington
and Ian Wood. Further, I am grateful for discussions on a variety of historical,
bibliographical and hermeneutical problems with Katy Cubitt, Tim Holt, John
Jackson, Geoff Little, Rosamond McKitterick and Emma Pettit. Finally I must thank
Christine (again!) and the Palmer and Money families simply for being there over the
last three years and keeping me on track.
111
Note On Translations.
Translations of non-English materials are my own throughout the dissertation unless
indicated. Useful English editions of Latin texts are listed in the primary sources
bibliography. Proper names have been Anglicised where a common English noun
exists (e. g. 'Boniface' for 'Bonifatius', or 'Munich' for 'Miinchen').
IV
Abbreviations.
AASS Acta sanctorum.
ARF Annales regni Francorum, ed. F. Kurze. MGH SRG 6
(Hanover, 1895).
Tangl Die Briefe des heiligen Bonifatius und Lullus, ed. M.
Tangl, MGH Epp. selectae in usum scholarum I
(Berlin, 1916).
CC Corpus Christianorum.
-SL -series latina.
-CM -continuatio mediaevalia.
HE Historia ecclesiastica (by Bede), ed. & transl. B.
Colgrave & R. A. B. Mynors, Bede's Ecclesiastical
History o/the English (Oxford, 1969).
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica.
-AA -Auctores antiquissimi.
-Cap. -Capitularia regum Francorum.
- Conc. - Concilia.
-Epp. -Epistolae.
-Dip. -Diplomata.
-Dip. Karol. -Diplomata Karolinorum.
-SRG -Scriptores rerum Germanicum in usum scholarum.
-SRM -Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum in usum scholarum.
-SS -Scriptores.
PL Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne, (221 vols., Paris,
1844-64).
SSualo Sermo Sualonis (by Ermenrich), ed. 0. Holder-Egger,
MGH SS 15 i (Hanover, 1887), pp. 156-63.
VA Vita Anskarii (by Rimbert), ed. G. Waitz, MGH SRM 55
(Hanover, 1884), pp. 13-79.
VaB Vita altera Bonifatii (anon.), ed. W. Levison, MGH
SRG 57 (Hanover, 1905), pp. 62-78.
VAlc Vita Alcuini (anon.), ed. W. Arndt, MGH SS 15 i
(Hanover, 1887), pp. 182-197.
VB Vita Bonifatii (by Willibald), ed. W. Levison, MGH
SRG 57 (Hanover, 1905), pp. 1-58.
v
VBurch Vita Burchardi (anon.), ed. O. Holder-Egger, MGH S8
15 i (Hanover, 1887), pp. 47-50.
VCorb Vita Corbiniani (by Arbeo), ed. B. Krusch • MGH 8RG
16 (Hanover, 1920), pp. 188-232.
VG Vita abbatis Gregorii (by Liudger), ed. 0. Holder-
Egger, MGH S8 15 i (Hanover, 1887), pp. 63-79.
VH Vita Haimhrammi (by Arbeo), ed. B. Krusch, MGH
8RG 16 (Hanover, 1920), pp. 26-99.
VL Vita Leobae (by Rudolf), ed. G. Waitz, MGH S8 15 i
(Hanover, 1887), pp. 118-131.
VLger Vita Liudgerii (by Altfrid), ed. W. Diekamp, Die Vitae
sancti Liudgeri, Die Geschichtsquellen des Bistums
MOnster 4 (MUnster, 1881), pp. 1-54.
VS Vita Sturmi (by Eigil), ed. P. Engelbert O. S. B., Die
Vita Sturmi des Eigil von Fulda. Literarkritisch-
historische Untersuchung und Edition,
VerOffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission fiiI
Hessen und Waldeck 29 (Marburg, 1968).
VWb Vita Willibaldi or Hodoeporicon (by Hygeburg), ed. O.
Holder-Egger,MGH SS 15 i (Hanover, 1887),
pp.86-106.
VWbrord Vita Willibrordi (by Alcuin), ed. W. Levison, MGH
8RM7 (Hanover & Leipzig, 1920), pp. 81-144.
VWhad Vita Willehadi (anon.), ed. A. Poncetel, AA8S, Nov. III
(Brussels, 1910), pp. 835-51.
VWyn Vita Wynnebaldi (by Hygeburg), ed. O. Holder-Egger,
MGH SS 15 i (Hanover, 1887), pp. 106-117.
Introduction.
On the morning of the 5th June, 754, a band of Anglo-Saxon missionaries working in
Dokkum in northern Frisia was attacked and murdered by pagans. 1 News of the terrible
event spread quickly to the Christian lands of the south. The bodies of the murdered
missionaries were retrieved and returned to the Anglo-Saxon mission-station at Utrecht.
With great speed a delegation of more Anglo-Saxons arrived from the regions of Hesse
and Thuringia in Germania, where the lead missionary had spent much of his long
career, in order to collect their leader's body~ his remains were taken first to his
archiepiscopal church in Mainz, and later to his own monastic foundation in Fulda. A
monk in the monastery of St Martin's, Utrecht, later wrote:
And so in four most blessed places, that is Dokkum, Utrecht, in
the city of Mainz and the monastery of Fulda, the presence of the
blessed martyrs was felt in numerous signs and revelations, in
which his many health-bringing intercessions from the Lord and
other benefits became known everywhere to this day.2
The passage neatly illustrates two related religious interests of the early Middle Ages:
the signs that proved the power of the saints on earth and the association between saints
and places which helped to relate that power to earthly communities. The missionaries
were not victims in the opinion of the St Martin's monk, but rather martyrs whose
sanctity connected communities in Frisia and Germany with heaven and whose power
healed those who venerated them.
1 Willibald, VB c. 8, pp. 47-50; Eigil, VS c. 15, pp. 147-9; VaE cc. 14-16, pp. 72-3.
VaB c. 17, p. 74: 'In quattuor ergo felicissimus locis, id est Dokinga, Traiecto, in Moguntia urbe, in
2
Fuldensi cenobio, beati martiris presentia visilibus crebro sentitur indiciis, in quibus per intercessiones
eius plurime sanitates a Domino aliaque prestantur beneficia usque in hodiemum diem'.
2
Medieval writers invested the stories of saints with meaning and status through
recording them in writing. In principle a 'saint' was defined by his or her pious deeds
whilst alive.3 There were many broad categories of saint. One of the most important
groups were the martyrs.4 Traditionally martyrs were men or women who had died for
their faith like the Anglo-Saxons at Dokkum, although many people who suffered for
their faith without dying (also called confessores) or those who mortified their own
body through asceticism could also be included in this category.5 Many other popular
saints were 'holy men' (or, less commonly, 'holy women'), who were figures that had
played an important role in leading or inspiring a community in spiritual matters.6
Meanwhile others, particularly women, were venerated for having led chaste lives.7 In
practice definitions of sanctity could be hazy: not all people venerated as 'saint-like'
had necessarily already died; not all chaste women had always been so; and many
'martyrs' had died for political rather than religious reasons. What mattered more than
'pious deeds' (or the lack thereof) was the way in which individuals were remembered.
Churches, focal points for social activity, could be dedicated to certain saints, or could
house saintly relics which might be used in communal worship.s The (re-)interpretation
ofa saint's life itself, however, was done by writers such as the St Martin's monk in
3 For orientation on saint types a good place to start is A. Angenendt, Hei/ige und Re/iquien. Die
Geschichte ihres Kultes vomfriihen Christentum bis zur Gegenwart (Munich, 1997). For an influential
analysis of types of saints see F. Graus, Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merowinger. Studien
zur Hagiographie der Merowingerzeil (prague, 1965).
4 On the form of martyrs' cults in the eighth and ninth centuries see J. T. Palmer, 'The Frankish cult of
martyrs and the case of the two saints Boniface', Revue benedictine (forthcoming).
, See C. Stancliffe, 'Red, white and blue martyrdom', in D. Whitelock, R. McKitterick & D. Dumville
(eds.), Ireland in Early Medieval Europe: Studies in Memory ofK athleen Hughes (Cambridge, 1982), pp.
21-46, which, while focusing upon the example oflrish martyrs, also relates those ideas to the continent.
6 The classic study of holy men in society is P. Brown, 'The rise and function of the holy man in Late
Antiquity', Journal ofR oman Studies 61 (I 971), 80-10 1; reprinted in his Society and the Holy in lAte
Antiquity (Berkeley, 1982), pp. 103-152. For a discussion of women leading communities by example in
the Anglo-Saxon missions see Y. Hen, 'Milites Christi utriusque sexus: gender and the politics of
conversion in the circle of Boniface' , Revue benedictine 109 (1999), 17-31.
7 The seminal work on female sanctity in the Carolingian period is 1. M. H. Smith, 'The problem of
!emale sanctity in Carolingian Europe c. 780-920', Past & Present 146 (1995), 3-37.
On the form of saints' cults see P. Brown, The Cult of Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin
Christendom (Chicago, 1981).
3
Utrecht who wrote vitae ('Saint's Lives' or 'hagiography') about the 'very special
dead' and why they deserved veneration. Literary legends of the saints, in other words,
were an important tool in defining the new saints of the early Middle Ages.9
A good opportunity to study the 'constructedness' of early medieval saints is
provided by the many vitae written across Northern Europe in the eighth and ninth
centuries commemorating the so-called Anglo-Saxon missions to the continent (ca 690-
ca 789).10 These 'missions', which were actually more concerned with church and
monastic reform than evanglisation, were led by great figures like the Northumbrian St
Willibrord (d. 739), the 'apostle ofFrisia', and the Dokkum martyr St Boniface of
Crediton, the 'apostle of Germany' (d. 754).11 Willibrord, Boniface and their Anglo-
Saxon, Frankish, German and Frisian supporters (the Willibrordkreise and
9 On the study of saints' Lives, see: H. Deleh~ye, Les Le!Iendes hag~ographiques (Brussels, 1905), trans\.
D. Attwater, The Legends oft he Saints (Dublin, 1953, 3 edn. Dubhn, 1998); Graus, Volk, Herrscher
und Heiliger; 1. M. H. Smith, 'Review Article: Early medieval hagiography in the late twentieth century',
Early Medieval Europe 1 (1992),69-76; P. J. Geary, 'Saints, scholars and society: the elusive goal', in P.
J. Geary (ed.), Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Ithaca & London, 1994), pp. 9-29.
10 The classic account of the Anglo-Saxons in eighth-century Europe is W. Levison, England and the
Continent in the Eighth Century. The Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford in the Hilary
Term 1943 (Oxford, 1946). The most recent study is L. E. Padberg, Mission und Christianisierung.
Formen und Folgen be; Angelsachsen und Frankenim 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1995). See also
R. Fletcher, The Conversion ofE urope: From Paganism to Christianity 37J-J386AD (London, 1997),
pp. 197-222; I. N. Wood, The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation ofE urope 400-1050
(Harlow, 2001), pp. 55-141; P. Brown, The Rise of We sf em Christendom: Triumph and Diversity AD 200-
1000 (Oxford, 1996, 2nd edn. 2003), pp. 408-33.
liOn Boniface the fundamental study remains T. Schieffer, Winfrid-Bonifatius und die christliche
Grundlegung Europas (Freiburg, 1954, 2nd edn. Darmstadt, 1972), which was in part developed from his
earlier' Angelsachsen und Franken. Zwei Studien zur Kirchengeschichte des 8. Jahrhunderts', Akademie
der Wissenschajten und der Literatur, Abhandlungen der Geistes-und Socialwissenschajtlichen Klasse,
Jahrgang 1950,20 (Wiesbaden, 1951), 1327-1539. See also: Sankt Bonifafius. Gedenkgabe zum
zwoljhundertsfen Todes/ag (Fulda, 1954); T. Reuter, (ed.), The Greatest Englishman: Essays on Saint
Boniface and the Church at Crediton (Exeter, 1980); L. E. von Padberg, Wynjreth-Bonifatius (Zurich,
1989); M. Mostert, 754: Bonifatius bij Dokkum vermoord, Gedenkwaardige momenten en figuren uit de
vaderlandse geschiedenis 7 (Hilversum, 1999). On Willibrord the fundamental study was C. Wampach,
Willibrord Sein Leben und Lebenswerk (Luxembourg, 1953), but see now A G. Weiler, Willibrords
Missie: Christendom en Cultuur in de Zevende en Achste Eeuw (Hilversum, 1989). See also: G. Kiesel &
1. Schroeder (eds.), WiJlibrord, Apostel der Niederlande, GrUnder der Abtei Echternach. Gedenkgabe
zum 1250. Todestag des angelstJchsischen Missionars (Luxembourg, 1989); P. Bange & A G. Weiler
(eds.), Willibrord, zijn wereld en zikn werk, Middeleeuwse Studies 6 (Nijmegen, 1990).