Responsiones Vadstenenses - Perspectives on the Birgittine Rule in Two Texts from Vadstena and Syon Abbey

275 Pages·2011·4.2 MB·English

by  Elin Andersson

Elin Andersson
Responsiones Vadstenenses
Perspectives on the Birgittine Rule in Two Texts
from Vadstena and Syon Abbey
A Critical Edition with Translation and Introduction

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS STOCKHOLMIENSIS
Studia Latina Stockholmiensia
—————————————— LV ——————————————
Responsiones Vadstenenses
Perspectives on the Birgittine Rule in Two Texts
from Vadstena and Syon Abbey
A Critical Edition with Translation and Introduction
by
ELIN ANDERSSON
STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET
© Elin Andersson 2011 and Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis
ISSN 0491-2764
ISBN 978-91-86071-59-2
Printed by Universitetsservice US-AB, Stockholm 2011
Cover picture: Birgittine brothers on the altarpiece of Saint Birgitta (Vadstena) by
Johannes Stenrath (1456). Photo by B.-A. Kéry, Department of History of Art,
Stockholm University.
Distributed by eddy.se AB, Visby
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments..................................................................................... vii
Introduction........................................................................................... 1
1. The purpose of the present work........................................................... 1
2. Previous research................................................................................... 1
3. Presentation of the texts......................................................................... 2
3.1. Background.......................................................................................... 2
3.1.1.The Birgittine monastery......................................................... 3
A twofold structure – A double leadership....................................... 3
3.1.2. Early Birgittine ‘legislative’ texts: a selection.......................... 5
The Regula Salvatoris................................................................ 5
The Addiciones prioris Petri and the Revelaciones Extravagantes........ 7
The Declaraciones Dominorum..................................................... 8
3.1.3. The establishment of Syon...................................................... 9
Articuli Extracti......................................................................... 10
Syon’s view on the Birgittine order and the double leadership
in the monastery......................................................................... 12
Mare Anglicanum and the independence of Syon.............................. 14
3.1.4. The 1427 visit in Vadstena....................................................... 16
3.1.5. The general chapter of 1429.....................................................17
3.1.6. Correspondence between Vadstena and Syon 1415–1510........19
Personal visits 1415–1516: a summary........................................... 23
3.2. Responsiones............................................................................................. 24
3.2.1. Time of composition.................................................................24
3.2.2. Authorship................................................................................24
3.2.3. Style..........................................................................................25
3.2.4. A survey of the contents........................................................... 27
Responsiones I........................................................................... 27
Responsiones II.......................................................................... 28
3.2.5. Sources and references.............................................................31
3.2.6. Responsiones – an influence on later texts?.................................32
The Acta Capituli Vadstenensis.................................................... 32
The Liber usuum....................................................................... 33
The Syon Additions.................................................................... 37
3.3. Collacio: Vide, Domine, et considera............................................................. 39
v
3.3.1. The term collacio........................................................................39
3.3.2. Time of composition, authorship and style..............................39
The literary style of John Whethamstede........................................ 41
3.3.3. A survey of the contents........................................................... 45
4. Summary................................................................................................. 47
5. The manuscripts..................................................................................... 49
5.1.1. Manuscripts used for the Responsiones................................................. 49
Responsiones: textual problems..................................................... 52
5.1.2. Manuscript used for the Collacio........................................................ 56
Collacio: textual problems........................................................... 57
6. Comments on the Edition...................................................................... 59
6.1. Editorial principles............................................................................... 59
Corrections............................................................................... 59
Marginal annotations in C 74..................................................... 59
Orthography............................................................................. 59
References in the text.................................................................. 60
6.2. The apparatuses.................................................................................. 60
The critical apparatus............................................................... 60
The apparatus of sources............................................................ 61
The apparatus of comments........................................................ 61
6.3. The translation................................................................................... 62
Edition and Translation....................................................................... 63
Conspectus siglorum....................................................................... 63
Abbreviationes et signa................................................................... 63
Responsiones I–II............................................................................... 65
Collacio: Vide, Domine, et considera....................................................... 195
Glossary..................................................................................................... 223
Indices........................................................................................................ 231
Bibliography and abbreviations............................................................237
Plates.......................................................................................................... 257
vi
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Claes Gejrot.
He has inspired and encouraged me throughout my work with this thesis, and I
have learned so much from him that it would take another book to summarize it;
suffice it to say that without his help and insightful guidance, none of this would
have been possible.
Likewise, Prof. Hans Aili has earned my gratitude for his constant
encouragement and thorough reading of the manuscript in its final stages.
I am very grateful to Prof. Monica Hedlund, Uppsala, who has let me use
preliminary transcriptions of the manuscript C 74, made by her palaeography
students at Uppsala University. This allowed me to get a good overview of the
Responsiones at the preparatory stages of my work. As opponent on my thesis for
the licentiate degree in September 2009, she also helped me to get on with the
next step: finishing this book.
The Latin seminar at Stockholm University has taken an active part in the
present work, and I am truly grateful to all its members past and present.
Many people have contributed in various ways. I especially want to thank
Richard O’Regan, who has corrected my English, for all the time he has spent
and for his wise comments. Heartfelt thanks are due to my friends and
colleagues Dr Erika Kihlman and Dr Sara Risberg for kind help and scholarly
advice in numerous matters. I am very grateful to them, as well as to my
colleague Per Sandström, for proof-reading parts of the book. Remaining errors
are entirely my own. I also want to thank my colleague and room-mate Lars
Nordgren for many good laughs and inspiring discussions over the years. I am
indebted to Dr Peter Ståhl and Prof. Alf Härdelin, who have been helpful in
matters concerning palaeography and liturgy.
Last but not least, I am very grateful to Dr Michael B. Tait and Dr D. R.
Howlett, who kindly granted me permission to copy and quote their unpublished
theses.
For my work with this thesis, I have received grants from the following funds:
Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse; Sten d’Aubignés stipendiestiftelse, and
Fondazione Famiglia Rausing.
To Emmanuel and Emil – sine quibus non.
Stockholm, 31 December, 2010 Elin Andersson
vii
viii
Introduction
1. The purpose of the present work(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)
The aim of the present study is to present critical editions and translations of two
hitherto unpublished texts dealing with the early relations between the Birgittine
monasteries Vadstena and Syon. The first and largest text, Responsiones, is a
collection of questions and answers concerning the Birgittine Rule and Birgittine
regulations and customs, of which the main part was written as a result of two
English brothers visiting Vadstena in 1427. The second, Collacio (Vide, Domine, et
considera ), is a text not unlike a sermon and reflecting similar topics. It was
probably written by John Whethamstede, conservator1 of Syon Abbey, most likely
under directions from the confessor general at the English monastery. The
introduction presents a background to the edited texts, focussing on the general
characteristics of the medieval Birgittine order and central legislative texts, with
the aim to create a framework to the texts edited here.
2. Previous research
The Responsiones has attracted the attention of scholars on a few occasions.2 In his
1905 thesis about the early history of Vadstena and the Birgittine order, Torvald
Höjer briefly mentions the text in a discussion about Syon’s early years.3 Hans
Cnattingius in his book Studies in the Order of St. Bridget of Sweden I (1963) analyses
the first part of the text (Resp. I in the present edition).4 An extensive account of
the text as a whole is found in the unpublished thesis of Michael B. Tait, The
Brigittine Monastery of Syon (Middlesex) with Special Reference to its Monastic Usages
(1975).5 Throughout his book, which also deals with a number of constitutional
documents from Vadstena and Syon, Tait uses the Responsiones as a reference to
1 Riley (1873), p. 401; Johnston (2006), p. 3. On the office of the conservator, see further p.
17 below.
2 There are also references to the Responsiones in recent works by, for instance, Vincent
Gillespie (2000); (2001) and Hedström (2009).
3 Höjer (1905), p. 257.
4 Cnattingius (1963), pp. 159–162.
5 Tait (1975), pp. 60–62; 122–125. As Tait’s thesis is unpublished and therefore difficult to
access, I have sometimes considered it necessary to quote his text rather extensively in
footnotes.
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illustrate various matters. Carl-Gustaf Undhagen (1977) discusses a passage in the
Responsiones in his edition of the first book of Saint Birgitta’s Revelations (1977).6
As for the Collacio, early mentions of the text are found in G. J. Aungier’s The
History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery (1840)7 and in the 1873 edition of The
Myroure of Oure Ladye (the office of the Syon sisters, printed in 1530) by John
Henry Blunt.8 In his book Två svenska biografier från medeltiden (1895), Henrik
Schück implies that the Collacio contains matters that the English brothers
discussed with Vadstena in 1427.9 In 1905, Torvald Höjer expressed the same
opinion, namely that the Collacio implicitly contained the questions answered in
the Repsonsiones.10 These assertations were correctly refuted by Hans Cnattingius
(1963), who instead designated the text ‘an edifying lecture intended for the
sisters’.11 This, however, is not entirely accurate either, as the text clearly
addresses the brothers . Michael B. Tait refers to the Collacio in a footnote and
briefly discusses the time of composition.12 F. R. Johnston in a 1996 article
concerning the early years of the English community picks up the comments of
Cnattingius and describes the Collacio as ‘a report on the discussions [in 1427]’,
but dismisses the text as ‘nothing more than a pious homily’.13
Last, there are brief mentions of the text in works by Vincent Gillespie and
Richard Sharpe.14
3. Presentation of the texts
3.1 Background
In order to place the Responsiones and the Collacio in a larger context, I will in the
following section give a comprehensive account of some typical characteristics of
6 Undhagen (1977), p. 8; 18.
7 Aungier (1840), p. 530.
8 Blunt (1873), p. xviii.
9 Schück (1895), p. 423, n. 1.
10 Höjer (1905), p. 257, n. 6.
11 Cnattingius (1963), p. 159, n. 2.
12 Tait (1975), p. 89, n. 88. See further n. 216 below.
13 Johnston (1996), p. 52.
14 Sharpe (1997), p. 656; Gillespie (2001), p. 578.
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