Sacred Biography: Saints and Their Biographers in the Middle Ages PDF
Preview Sacred Biography: Saints and Their Biographers in the Middle Ages
Sacred Biography SACRED BIOGRAPHY Saints and Their Biographers in the Middle Ages Thomas J. Heffernan New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1988 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petaling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1988 by Thomas J. Heffernan Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Heffernan, Thomas J., 1944- Sacred biography : saints and their biographers in the Middle Ages / Thomas J. Heffernan. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-19-505225-0 1. English prose literature—Middle English. 1100-1500—History and criticism. 2. Religion and literature. 3. Christian saints in literature. 4. Christian saints—Legends—History and criticism. 5. Christian hagiography. 6. Biography (as a literary form) I. Title. PR275.R4H44 1988 820'.9'382—de 19 87-30280 CIP 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Judy and Anne Preface The inspiration for this book began when I was a graduate student at Cambridge University. At that time my work on medieval manuscripts brought me in continual palpable contact with medieval artifacts. Dur ing the course of my studies, I was impressed by the sheer number of lives of the saints which survived in manuscript. Surely, I thought, such numbers were an indication of importance; I promised myself to look into this. Some years later, when I first began this book, I decided it was the compelling powers of saints’ lives in the lives of medieval Christians which I wished to study. My interest was piqued in part by the knowledge that these very lives which so stimulated the intelli gentsia from Augustine to Aquinas had fallen into desuetude. The cul tural atrophy of these fabulous stories was indicative not only of a change in religious sensibilities but of a change in virtually every area of intellectual and affective endeavor. Miracles, mortification of the flesh, belief in demons, necromancy, magical healing, resurrection of the dead, and a host of other transcendent phenomena are rightly given short shrift by modern society. Yet these same characteristics which comprised the cultural traditions of the western world were the main stay of equally intelligent people of the past. I was fascinated by the differences, by the intellectual and creedal rift which separated us from our ancestors, as well as deeply moved by the power the lives of the saints exercised for a millennium and a half. Inevitably my perspectives have led me to concentrate on some as pects of this very rich tradition at the expense of others. Selection in such a broad study is necessarily individual. I have, I suppose, written what Augustine refers to in his Confessions as the conceits of my own heart. Since my primary interest in sacred biography is from a diach ronic perpsective, I have perforce paid less attention to an exhaustive study of individual lives in their unique settings. Such intense local study, although important, was not my goal. Rather I wanted to follow vili SACRED BIOGRAPHY the rise and fall of the tradition, to see it at its beginning and at its end, to follow the tradition from its expression in early Latin vitae to that of late Middle English. It was the seemingly timeless endurance of the paradigms expressed in the sacred lives which fascinated and still holds me in the grip of its power. Although we have replaced these ancient stories with our own constitutive fictions, the careful reader can learn much of the present’s indebtedness to the past by a sympathetic read ing of medieval saint’s lives. It is my hope that my work arouses in the reader what Augustine refers to as a “pleasure for these fabulous nar rations.” I am well aware that my interests have carried me far afield and given birth to a book which moves over much of the medieval landscape. Although I have tried to represent a fair sampling of the scholarship, I am well aWare of the compressions and the oversimplifications which result from attempting to cover such a broad compass. Indeed, a study which cuts such a wide swath involves the use of a host of sources both primary and secondary. I have tried to make it as accurate as possible, but I remain fully aware that errors will remain, errors of simple fact, errors of commission, and more regrettably errors of omis sion. And although no single book can hope to present a comprehen sive study of medieval sacred biography, I regret and take full respon sibility for such lacunae. I wish to thank a number of people and institutions which have sup ported me during the writing of this book. I have benefited from my students with whom I have discussed these sacred lives and with whom I first tried some of my ideas. My colleagues have been generous to a fault. I would like to thank Dr. James E. Shelton for his careful scrutiny of my citation of Latin and Greek. Professors John H. Fisher, David E. Linge, Robert Adams, Jerry Ball, David L. Dungan, James Fitz gerald, and Bruce Grelle have all read and contributed helpful sugges tions to me. Daniel Pigg and Dr. Jerry Ball have helped considerably in the proof reading of my manuscript. As Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the National Humanities Center, I was afforded the time, solicitude, and collegial interest to complete the writing of the typescript. Dr. Jo seph B. Trahern, Jr., and the trustees of the John C. Hodges founda tion of the Department of English at the University of Tennessee were generous in their assistance, as was the American Council of Learned Societies. I am grateful to the editors at Oxford University Press for their guidance during the preparation of this manuscript. Numerous libraries in both this country and Europe were unstinting in their gen erosity. Preface ix I would also like to thank those countless scholars whose works have so influenced me that I only vaguely recognize the depth of my intel lectual indebtedness. I have tried in the notes to acknowledge this debt but I feel sure that I have not done justice to the learning I have re ceived. I would also like to thank my parents without whose nurturing this book would have been impossible. My greatest support, apparent in my dedication, is to my wife who has shared her life with my fasci nation for these old stories. Knoxville, Tenn, T. J. H. August 1988
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