ET CREDIDIT POPULUS. THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF BELIEFS IN EARLY SOCIETIES. Issue Spring 2009

Transcription

1 ET CREDIDIT POPULUS. THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF BELIEFS IN EARLY SOCIETIES Issue Spring 2009 A Special Edition containing the Proceedings of a conference held at Queen s University of Belfast on the 19th September, Guest Editors: Judyta Szacillo Jonathan Eaton Shaun McDaid. quest@qub.ac.uk

2 Contents: ii Editor s Introduction Judyta Szacillo 1 Literacy in context: the role of literacy in Dunbrode Abbey, Co. Wexford, in the medieval period. Jean Price 19 Translation accounts and representations of popular belief in the hagiography of the community of St Filibert. Christian Harding 34 St Edmund of East Anglia and his miracles: variations in literature and art. Ilaria Fornasini 45 The Life of St Ruadán and the cursing of Tara. Judyta Szacillo 61 The Ladies of Ely. Kimberley Steele 75 Biblical Judith in the ideology of queenship of the early middle ages. Grzegorz Pac 90 Cicero and the rationality of belief. Stefano Maso i

3 Editors Introduction Ancient and medieval histories have more in common with each other than either of them does with modern history. Ancient and medieval historians face similar difficulties in dealing with very few extant texts, and trying to fill in the gaps between the scraps of information they get from their sources. The more recent history is, the fewer are such gaps, and researchers are able to work on a choice of sources, instead of grasping all the extant texts together, to extract as much information on a subject as possible. We, the members of the Medieval & Ancient Research Seminar group, noticed this relationship two years ago, when we started a series of joint ancient and medieval seminars. We were looking for opportunities to widen our understanding of the historian s tools through observing others at work. The final outcome of this search was the conference from which these proceedings are presented. The conference Et credidit populus. The role and function of beliefs in early societies took place at Queen s University of Belfast in September 2008 and was supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the School of History & Anthropology at QUB. It hosted speakers from the UK, Ireland, Poland, Austria and Italy. The range of the subjects discussed at the conference covered the period from prehistory to the late middle ages, all of them relating to various aspects of human religiosity. For beliefs were crucial elements in ancient and medieval societies: everything, from small aspects of people s daily lives to central ruling powers, were connected to, influenced by and depended on a certain system of beliefs. A comprehensive survey of some of these issues is offered in this selection of conference papers. Jean Price (Headland Archaeology Ltd., Cork) presents an interpretation of the most recent excavations of Irish Cistercian monasteries, reconstructing daily activities of medieval monks. Using both archaeological and written sources, Price gives a complete overview of the functioning of an exemplary Cistercian monastery, using the Dunbrody Abbey in County Wexford as her example, and focusing especially on its activity in literacy and manuscript production. The description of this typical daily occupation of medieval monks leads to a long discussion about the means by which medieval literacy, architecture and daily organisation functioned in very similar ways all over Europe. Similar observations on the widespread medieval patterns of religious ii

4 behaviours are evident in the paper by Christian Harding (Institute of Medieval Studies, University of St Andrews), who offers an account on the ceremonies of translations of the saints relics. Harding s main argument is based on the ninthcentury records of the translations of a Merovingian saint, Filibert. The political aspect of these ceremonies is also subjected to a detailed discussion: medieval translations were very often caused by political issues. The discussion about political aspects of relics, its translations and ceremonial presentations evolve to a wider perspective through the papers by Ilaria Fornasini (Department of English Studies, University of Verona) and Judyta Szacillo (School of History & Anthropology, Queen s University of Belfast). Fornasini presents a detailed discussion on the evolution of the legend of St Edmund of East Anglia, both in literary and iconographic sources, illustrating the correlations between elements of the legend and the political occurrences. Szacillo s presentation of her research results deals with the same regularity: she studies the textual changes in the Lives of St Ruadán and associates them with the shifting of power in medieval Munster. The issue of a saintly authority and its relation to political needs and events is also touched by Kimberley Steele in her paper on the female saints of Ely. Steele demonstrates how the descriptions of different aspects of the saints characters were emphasised according to the political needs of the institutions they were associated with. Religious appearances are discussed on a more general level than everyday life or politically related issues. Grzegorz Pac offers a cross-textual synthesis of the use of the image of biblical Judith in relation to the ideology of queenship in medieval Europe. A feature of the discussion after Pac s conference paper and his research on general ideas of the spiritual sources of authority in the middle ages was a recapitulation of the conclusions appearing during the whole conference: that belief and its organised form religion were in the roots of all sorts of authorities in early societies. Stefano Maso s paper concerning Cicero s thoughts on the social function of religion proves that that understanding was already common in ancient times: the organised system of beliefs was the source of social order, laws and authorities which constituted that order. iii

5 The proceedings of the conference Et credidit populus. The role and function of beliefs in early societies printed here are a selection of the papers given on September 19 th 2008 at Queen s University Belfast. The organisers would especially like to acknowledge the help and support of David Hayton, the Head of the School of History & Anthropology at QUB, and Marie-Therese Flanagan, the Director of Research in the Ancient & Medieval Research Cluster, QUB. Judyta Szacillo Belfast, 14 January 2009 iv

6 LITERACY IN CONTEXT: THE ROLE OF LITERACY IN DUNBRODY ABBEY, CO. WEXFORD, IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD Jean Price. Headland Archaeology Ltd., Cork, Ireland The role of literacy is so deeply entrenched in the social and religious way of life in Cistercian abbeys that it is visible in tangible elements of the religious order, in particular, in the architecture. This paper will briefly outline the establishment of the Cistercian Order in Ireland before discussing the history of Dunbrody Abbey, Co. Wexford, in detail. These two elements will then form the basis for a discussion of particular literary practices in this one particular abbey as portrayed by the remaining architectural and archaeological evidence. The Cistercians in Ireland The Cistercian order came to Ireland in They were part of a much wider European phenomenon of both Cistercian dissemination and Christian monasticism in general. 2 Although Ireland had a long and important indigenous monastic tradition, this differed quite dramatically from the spreading traditions of the continent that were now establishing themselves throughout the country. The Irish monastic tradition was tied to the communities in which the monasteries were present, with local families holding sway and often office within them. 3 While many of the Irish monks practiced an ascetic lifestyle, they often interacted with the local people. Continental orders often also established themselves within villages or towns, but tried to hold themselves outside of their influence (although the success of this was extremely variable). Cistercians were different from both the Irish monastic tradition and many of the European orders establishing themselves in Ireland at that time. They chose to establish their monasteries in the countryside, away from local influence, taking low value land and turning it into productive farmland. 4 The Cistercians and other continental monastic orders arrived in Ireland with what was almost an entirely foreign cultural package, which did not always sit well within the local cultural landscape, frequently causing problems between the monks who 1 R. Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland (London, 1987), p Ibid. 3 Ibid., p Ibid., p

7 were unwilling to accept and learn about the local people, and the local people who were sometimes unhappy with land being given away. 1) Cistercian abbeys in Ireland archaeological survey. Cistercians had little trouble establishing themselves away from settlements in the Irish countryside (Figure 1). 5 As they had less interaction with local communities compared to the other orders establishing themselves in Ireland at the time, they had fewer problems than other continental monastic traditions. They were often granted 5 Ibid. 2

8 land in the countryside that nobody else wanted and were often even welcomed into local areas for their ability to farm this land. 6 However, as they chose to live in such a disconnected way from the local communities, they provided little in the way of employment opportunities or financial betterment for the regions into which they moved. Dunbrody was almost certainly established for these reasons of settling in wilderness and stabilizing an area. 7 Due to their minimal interaction with the local communities, Cistercians caused less of a cultural upset than the more communitybased continental monastic traditions. Over time, Ireland saw the establishment of two main Cistercian parent houses which eventually came to operate within slightly different traditions. Mellifont Abbey was established in Co. Louth and became the parent abbey of many others throughout the country. This parent house and the abbeys it helped found came to be seen as the Irish tradition of Cistercian houses as it was more closely tied to the Irish ecclesiastical and monastic tradition. 8 and became politically active in the country. 9 This tradition drew heavily on local support It also lead to weakened ties with the continental abbeys, leading to a lessening of standards and several disciplinary actions being taken against the Irish abbeys. 10 St. Mary s Abbey was established in Dublin associated with the Anglo-Norman invasion and became the parent abbey for Cistercian monastic establishments following the continental tradition. 11 As such, it retained considerably stronger ties to the continental Cistercian abbeys, and therefore maintained stronger adherence to the rules of the order. 12 The two also differ somewhat in terms of architecture, with the Anglo-Norman abbeys staying closer to the Cistercian plan and showing clear English influences. 13 Dunbrody Abbey (Figure 2) in Co. Wexford was founded within this second, continental tradition and was established in an area of the country that had strong Anglo-Norman ties, although Wexford had a well-established monastic tradition prior 6 Ibid., p I. Doyle, The Founation of the Cistercian Abbey of Dunbrody, Co. Wexford and its historical context in Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, 14 (1992-3), pp Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, pp 11, B. Colfer, Anglo-Norman Settlement in Co. Wexford, in Wexford: history and society, ed. K. Whelan, W. Nolan (Dublin, 1987), pp Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, pp 15, Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, p Ibid. 13 Ibid., p

9 to this (as detailed by Breen ). It was the first Cistercian Abbey in Ireland founded in this tradition, with twenty-two others following. The southern half of Wexford had been settled very early and successfully in the initial Anglo-Norman conquest period, requiring little fortification to maintain Anglo-Norman power. 15 Another Cistercian monastery, Tintern Abbey, was established in close proximity and in the same tradition as Dunbrody; this was an unusual variation in the Cistercian monastic pattern. 16 Monasteries were usually established with great distances between them because of the Cistercian requirement for isolation and the need for large tracts of arable land. Despite this, Dunbrody and Tintern were separated by just a few miles. 2) View of the exterior of the abbey The Founding of the Dunbrody Abbey (Figure 2) Lands were granted to Hervey de Montmorency by Dermot MacMurrough, including lands in southern Wexford, including the baronies of Bargy and Shelbourne. These areas were confirmed by Richard de Clare (Strongbow). In approximately 1172 (there is some debate over the exact date due to the existence of two non-concurring 14 A. Breen A Portrait of Monastic Wexford in Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, 21 (2006-7), pp Colfer, Anglo-Norman Settlement in Co. Wexford, p Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, p

10 extant charters), de Montmorency granted the land to the monks of Buildwas Abbey in Shropshire for the foundation of a Cistercian abbey. This was also in part intended to pacify the area. 17 The land to the south of this was granted to the Templars, 18 with whom the monks of Dunbrody would come to have several land disputes. Prior to any attempts to establish a community at Dunbrody, a lay-brother was sent from Buildwas to inspect the lands. This inspection resulted in an unfavourable account of the area and no further attempts were made by the Buildwas community to develop the lands at Dunbrody. 19 from England to establish a Cistercian house in the area. The lands lay unused and no settlement took place In November 1182, Leonard, the Abbot of St. Mary s in Dublin, met with Abbot Ranulph of Buildwas to discuss the possibility of founding an Abbey at Dunbrody 20. The result was an agreement between the two abbeys which gave St Mary s complete jurisdiction over Dunbrody 21. Construction began on Dunbrody the same year 22 and it was consecrated by Herlewyn, Bishop of Leighlin in Dunbrody remained affiliated with St. Mary s Abbey in Dublin until 1342, when disputes arose between the two houses. 24 The Abbey s Functional Years Dunbrody became a very powerful and influential abbey during its functional years. It was one of the largest Cistercian communities in Ireland and held both wealth and political power. The lands at Dunbrody appear to have been equally split between arable and pasture with smaller parcels of woodland and moor. Sheep were likely the principal animals reared, with wool being exported in substantial quantities during the 13 th century. Pigs, cattle, horse and poultry were also reared on a smaller scale. Economic activities from the Dunbrody estate such as corn milling (in tidal mills), fishing, bee-keeping and brewing were also occuring. At its dissolution in 1536, 17 Doyle, The Founation of the Cistercian Abbey of Dunbrody, p G. H. Orpen, Ireland Under the Normans (Dublin, 2005), p. 121; Doyle, The Founation of the Cistercian Abbey of Dunbrody, p Colfer, Anglo-Norman Settlement in Co. Wexford, pp 86-87; idem, The Hook Peninsula: county Wexford (Cork, 2004), p. 131; A Gwynn, Medieval religious houses: Ireland (Harlow, 1970), p. 131; Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, p. 244; Orpen, Ireland Under the Normans, p Gwynn, Medieval Religious Houses, p Colfer, Anglo-Norman Settlement in Co. Wexford, pp Orpen, Ireland Under the Normans, p Colfer, Anglo-Norman Settlement in Co. Wexford, pp 86-87; Colfer, The Hook Peninsula, p Colfer, The Hook Peninsula, p

11 Dunbrody s monastic estates consisted of 40 carucates or ploughlands which equates to about 13,000 acres 25. Suppression and Decline The Abbey of Dunbrody was dissolved on May 6, At this time, ownership of the lands and abbey passed to the Crown and were subsequently granted to Sir Osborn Etchingham. 27 Immediately after the dissolution of Dunbrody, raiding by the Irish laid waste to some of the lands surrounding the abbey. 28 From the 1630s, the Abbey lay derelict. Some reports do state that Cistercian monks remained in the Abbey and Titular Abbots of Dunbrody Abbey continued to be named until Despite these reports, monks were unlikely to be resident in the Abbey. In 1642, Dunbrody was handed over to the Etchingham family who continued to hold the buildings and lands for several generations. The management of Dunbrody Abbey itself was handed over to the Office of Public Works by the Chichester family on 14 th January Ibid., p C. Ó Conbhuidhe, Studies in Irish Cistercian history, (Dublin, 1998). p. 52; Colfer, The Hook Peninsula, p Colfer, The Hook Peninsula, p Ibid. 29 Gwynn, Medieval religious houses, pp ; Ó Conbhuidhe, Studies in Irish Cistercian history, p th Report of the Commissioners of Public Works 1910, 16. 6

12 3) Plan of the Dunbrody Abbey Excavations in the Abbey (Figure 3) In 1911, the Office of Public Works conducted an excavation that revealed the foundations of the lavabo within the cloister garth. Excavations in 2007 by Headland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of the Office of Public Works under the direction of Colm Moloney (ministerial direction E3686; consent number C111) re-established the 7

13 location of the lavabo foundations. 31 Excavations to determine the nature and depth of the medieval layer within the cloister and eastern claustral range which included the book room, the chapter room and the parlour were also undertaken 32 (Figure 3). External exploratory trenches were also excavated. 33 The following discussion primarily examines the book room and chapter room, while touching briefly on the northern arcade. The Role of Literacy in Cistercian Life: a highly textualized community Cistercian religious communities were highly linked to religious and organizational texts and the locations in which those texts were read. Cistercian life was very controlled, each order closely adhering to the Rule of St Benedict and to daily established schedules. The day began with readings in the Chapter Room. 34 Other activities included working in the fields and prayer. Within the very controlled architectural plans of the abbeys, Cistercians were dependent on the texts they used to regulate their days. The Cistercians in Ireland in the Anglo-Norman tradition followed the same schedules, texts and architectural plans as their European brethren. The monasteries in the Anglo-Norman tradition were able to remain fairly uniform to the general Cistercian framework through the highly centralized annual Chapter meetings, although each Irish house established quite an independent character. 35 The Cistercian Abbey Plan Cistercian Abbeys follow a very specific architectural layout: churches are located to the north, chapter rooms to the east, western ranges with few structures and ancillary buildings in the remaining spaces. In larger abbeys, buildings spread beyond this square plan to house a more numerous population of monks and lay brothers, but the central cloister area with the church, chapter room, etc surrounding it was 31 J. Brigden, C. Moloney, J. Price, Dunbrody Abbey, Co. Wexford: Preliminary Report for Archaeological Investigations at Dunbrody Abbey (unpublished client report, 2008). 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 T. N. Kinder, Cistercian Europe: architecture of contemplation (Michigan, 2002), p.246; Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, p Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, pp 11, 15. 8

14 maintained. 36 Quest Irish Cistercian abbeys, however, are generally of the standard design with fewer additional structures outside the main square of buildings. The vast majority of Irish examples conform to this very strict design layout. 37 The Chapter Room The Chapter Room is one of the most significant rooms within Cistercian abbeys. This is the place where the abbey s inhabitants gathered each morning to have the Rule of St Benedict read aloud to them. 38 The Chapter Room was used almost expressly for literary purposes. Each day a portion of the Rule of Benedict was read aloud; when it was finished, it was started again so that each year it was read several times. 39 As the chapters were extremely variable in length, the book was divided into sections of an appropriate length. Additional literature was also occasionally read or distributed in the Chapter Room, and public confessions were made there. 40 Monks were encouraged to confess their sins as soon as possible and accept their penance. If another monk confessed on their behalf, the penance would be much more severe. Punishment included public flagellation, among others, meted out immediately after confession. 41 Because of their early hour of use, Chapter Rooms were located on the eastern transept of the cloister to allow the early morning light to be used for reading. Doors were not used on the western entrances so that lay-brothers could listen to sermons being preached and doorways were usually carved elaborately indicating the importance of the activities occurring within. 42 Chapter Rooms were also frequently set slightly below ground level with several steps used to enter the room. 43 The Chapter Rooms were vaulted, with two or more pillars in the centre supporting the arches. 44 Monks filed in and arranged themselves on benches around the walls. 45 This was a very different seating pattern to the church where the monks would have sat 36 Kinder, Cistercian Europe, as evidenced by plans throughout the volume. 37 Ibid. 38 Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, p. 162; Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p Ibid. 44 Ibid. 45 Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p

15 facing towards the altar. This alternate arrangement indicates the different function and social role the room played. The monks would have sat ranged around the room facing inwards while one monk stood with his back to the east (to allow the light to shine on his reading material) facing the door, with their feet on foot rests that raised them up above the floor level. The public role this room played in the lives of the monks and lay-brothers can be viewed as second only to the importance of the church in Cistercian life. The literacy activities undertaken in the room held special significance. The very act of public reading, of reading aloud in a community of highly literate men, instead of privately or silently interacting with literature outside of the church, indicates that it had an element of communal control and drawing together. The architecture of the types of rooms in which this occurred: the circular, less ranked seating pattern of the room, 46 the vaulted arches and the natural light, all create an intimate setting for the communal acts of reading, instruction and social penance. By tying together both behavioural instruction, in the form of the reading of the Rule, and behavioural control, in the form of public confession and penance, in one space, these two elements become inextricably linked. It also adds a considerable element of textualization to the social production of appropriate behaviour. The picture this setting creates, of an ecclesiastical literacy event tied to a socially controlling event, confined to a specific location within the architectural layout of the abbeys, demonstrates that the events occurring within the room and the social setting it created were of considerable importance within the Cistercian order. The Chapter Room at Dunbrody is no exception to this in terms of the architectural remains evidenced in the archaeological excavations. The Chapter Room is located on the eastern transept of the Cloister and contains the remains of the pillar bases that would have held the arches (Figure 4). 47 The room also contained the remains of the foot rests and benches around the edges on which the monks would have sat each morning 48. In two corners, the remains of the spring for the vaulted arches are still in evidence 49. Slate tiles from the roof were recovered indicating that the room was well 46 Ibid. 47 Brigden et al., Dunbrody Abbey, Co. Wexford, passim. 48 Ibid. 49 Ibid. 10

16 protected from inclement weather (Figure 6). 50 This would not have been unusual in a structure of this size and importance at this time. 4) Pillar base in the Chapter Room One interesting feature that was uncovered both during the 2007 excavations and the excavations undertaken by the Office of Public Works in 1910 was the presence of impressed ceramic floor tiles (Figure 5 and 6). 51 The most recent excavations provided evidence for two phases of flooring with the first consisting of slate tiles. 52 The second phase consisted of impressed ceramic tiles laid directly over the slate tiles. 53 These tiles were very prestigious items and were also extremely costly. 54 Their presence within the Chapter Room indicates that the Abbey gained wealth, either of its own or through patrons, which allowed them to place these status objects 50 Ibid. 51 E. Eames, T. Fanning (eds), Irish Medieval Tiles: decorated medieval paving tiles in Ireland with an inventory of sites and designs and a visual index (Dublin, 1988), p Brigden et al., Dunbrody Abbey, Co. Wexford, passim. 53 Ibid. 54 E. Baker Images, Ceramic Floors and Warden abbey in World Archaeology, 18/3 (1987), pp

17 throughout portions of the monastery. Although the Church would have been by far the most significant and impressively decorated of all the structures in the abbey, and therefore the primary recipient of wealth, the Chapter Room was a significant enough room to have these objects placed there as well. The extent of the ceramic impressed tiles within Dunbrody is unknown as the other excavated areas of the abbey were already disturbed and any tile that may have been present was already removed. 5) Ceramic tile in situ 12

18 6) Ceramic tile and slate roof tile The Book Room (Figure 7) As abbeys began to own increasing numbers of books, storing them became an issue. Many Cistercian abbeys have a room devoted to storing the books they own, however they are not original features of the plan. 55 The development of book rooms can be attributed to the abbey coming into possession of more and more texts, both through texts becoming more accessible and through gifts received by the abbeys. 56 Although the cost and rarity of books declined with the advent of printing, they retained a certain amount of prestige and were still not cheap. Initially the small collections of books could be stored in a small area, such as on a bookshelf in the cloister. 57 As collections began to grow, books began to be stored under staircases and on shelves in the cloisters. 58 However, this again became an unacceptable solution as collections became increasingly larger. 55 Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p Ibid. 57 Ibid. 58 Ibid. 13

19 Book Rooms began to be built into abbeys in the 12 th and 13 th centuries once libraries reached this difficult-to-store level. As books were still valuable items, rooms could not be constructed to house them on the outskirts of the abbey. A solution was required whereby books could be stored within the abbey where they could be easily guarded and accessed when needed. The books were also required to be kept inter ecclesiam et capitulum or between the church and the chapter room. 59 To this end, the Sacristy was frequently divided into two, with the function thereby divided as well. 60 The section which adjoined the church remained the Sacristy, while the second half was converted to hold the abbey s book collection. Additionally, very large abbeys that acquired substantial numbers of books built libraries, frequently located in the western ranges. 61 At Dunbrody, this model was followed exactly. The Sacristy is divided in two and the second half functioned as a book store. Whether or not this was an original design element of the abbey based on the later plans of continental abbeys is not known. Given the prestige and power of Dunbrody, it can be assumed that the abbey held a large collection of books that required housing. Dunbrody may have acquired such a collection after the completion of the eastern range, thereby requiring the construction of a special room to store books as so many other abbeys did. 59 Ibid. 60 Ibid. 61 Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p

20 7) Exterior view of the Book Room The Scriptorium Cistercian abbeys did not typically contain scriptoriums, areas for copying manuscripts, however many of them again developed a solution to this once one was needed. Continental abbeys were often able to find indoor areas suitable for scriptoriums, however, they moved as needs dictated and a standard was never established. 62 The northern arcade of the cloister was used to fulfil this function in the smaller abbeys that were unable to either modify other structures to house a scriptorium or to construct a new one altogether. The northern arcade was chosen to fulfil this function as it was the most suitably located. The northern arcade would 62 Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p

21 have had the church immediately behind it and would have received the light from the south in the winter, allowing the copying of manuscripts to continue during all seasons. There is, unfortunately, no evidence of the use of the northern arcade as a scriptorium at Dunbrody. No extant manuscripts have been noted, and this type of activity leaves little archaeological evidence. However, it is nearly certain that there would have been some type of dedicated area used for copying and writing as abbeys both generated a considerable amount of paperwork and many Cistercian abbeys were well known for their beautiful illuminated manuscripts. 63 St. Thomas Aquinas One surviving book (Special Collections L.3.19) ascribed to Dunbrody is housed in the library at University College of Cork. A copy of St. Thomas Aquinas Compendium absolutissimum totius Summae theologiae D. Thomae Aquinatis, doctoris angelici : in quo universa eius doctrina partim conclusionibus quaestionum, partim vero argumentorum solutionibus, contenta proponitur ; accuratissime omnia quae vel in sacris paginis obscura, vel in gravissimis SS PP monumenta dubia, vel olim, & hodie ab hereticis in controuersiam vocata, admirabili cum breuitate & claritate explicans / auctore R.D. Ludovico Carbone a Costaciario theologiae in gymnasio Perusino professore that belonged to Brother Everard, the last named abbot of Dunbrody, is described as leather-bound with blind tooled rectangular panelling 64 which eventually found its way into the Cathedral Collection of St. Fin Barre s Cathedral, Cork and from there to the library. It is a printed volume the contents of which were held to be particularly significant in the Church and within the Cistercian community. However, it bears little evidence of use: there is no marginalia or glossing present and it does not appear to have been much read. There is the possibility that the book was never actually in Dunbrody Abbey as it had been suppressed prior to the publishing of the book in Having belonged to the last abbot who was unlikely to have been resident in the abbey, coupled with the lack of use wear, the book unfortunately does not provide much evidence for what actually 63 Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p Catalogue entry for Compendium absolutissimum at %2C5%2C5%2CB/frameset&FF=Xdunbrody&SORT=D&4%2C4%2C [ ]. 16

22 occurred in the abbey. Regardless, the book is still an interesting addition to the general literary and linguistic landscape of the abbey even though it does not provide much evidence for what actually occurred in the abbey. For that we are dependent on the archaeological evidence recovered in the rooms directly associated with literary activities as well as descriptions of these activities that survive from other abbeys. Archaeological Evidence of Literacy Activities The evidence for the physical environment in which specific literary activities occurred in Cistercian life is well documented. By combining this with the evidence uncovered during archaeological investigations, a clearer picture of these activities is created. The highly textualized life of the Cistercian order was evidenced in the very architecture and plan of the abbeys they constructed. The importance of literary activities to, and within, the order held such high value as to be embodied within the fabric of their structures. As literary activities are extremely ephemeral in nature, uncovering archaeological evidence of their occurrence, even if it is only in the form of these architectural remains, is extremely rare. Literary activities were occurring in many places and being carried out by many people in this period, and many probably occurred within the abbey leaving no trace whatsoever. However, the importance of the specific events and items manifested itself in the architecture leaving clues as to their form and social perception. Whether literacy activities influenced the architecture or the architecture influenced the activities is unclear, however two things can be known. The first is that both the activities and the architecture were extremely important to the Cistercian order. The second is that by the time Dunbrody was established, both the architecture and the literacy activities were firmly established within the Cistercian cultural package and are in evidence at the abbey The author would like to thank Colm Moloney and Damian Shiels for commenting on earlier versions of this paper; the excavation crew at Dunbrody; the OPW for supporting the excavations; and Julian at UCC Special Collections. 17

23 Bibliography: Quest BAKER, E., Images, Ceramic Floors and Warden abbey in World Archaeology, 18/3 (1987), pp BREEN, A., A Portrait of Monastic Wexford in Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, 21 (2006-7), pp BRIDGEN, J., MOLNEY, C., PRICE, J., Dunbrody Abbey, Co. Wexford: Preliminary Report for Archaeological Investigations at Dunbrody Abbey (unpublished client report, 2008). COLFER, B., Anglo-Norman Settlement in Co. Wexford, in Wexford: history and society, ed. K. Whelan, W. Nolan (Dublin, 1987), pp COLFER, B., The Hook Peninsula: county Wexford (Cork, 2004). DOYLE, I., The Foundation of the Cistercian Abbey of Dunbrody, Co. Wexford and its historical context in Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, 14 (1992-3), pp EAMES, E., FANNING, T. (eds), Irish Medieval Tiles: decorated medieval paving tiles in Ireland with an inventory of sites and designs and a visual index (Dublin, 1988). GWYNN, A., Medieval religious houses: Ireland (Harlow, 1970). KINDER, T. N., Cistercian Europe: architecture of contemplation (Michigan, 2002). ORPEN, G. H., Ireland Under the Normans (Dublin, 2005). STALLEY, R., The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland (London,

24 TRANSLATION ACCOUNTS AND REPRESENTATIONS Quest OF POPULAR BELIEF IN THE HAGIOGRAPHY OF THE COMMUNITY OF ST FILIBERT Christian Harding, University of St Andrews, Scotland In late 830, Einhard, onetime courtier to the late emperor Charlemagne, wrote an account of the transfer of the relics of saints Marcellinus and Peter that he had recently acquired from Rome. 1 When describing what happened when he united all of the relics at their final location at Mulinheim, some having been appropriated by a rival en route, the account took on an aspect that revealed a highly charged social response to their arrival. What follows is a quotation from his account: At this point the crowd that had left the palace (of Aachen) with us, after adoring and kissing the sacred relics and after shedding many tears, which they could not restrain because everyone was filled with so much joy, returned home. Then another crowd met us and these people joined in singing the Kyrie eleison without stopping until we reached another place where we were overtaken by others also hurrying to meet us. Then, just as before, the [second] crowd said prayers and returned home. In this way, we were joined every day from dawn to dusk by crowds of people praising the Lord Christ, and, with the Lord watching (we continued on). 2 According to one historian s assessment, this account came from one of the first pens of the Carolingian empire. 3 Its influence and its audience were correspondingly widespread. We shall return to the importance of this text in the development of 1 G. Waitz (ed.), Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri auctore Einhardo in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores, xv, 1 (Hanover, 1888), pp English translations used in this paper come from The translation and miracles of the blessed martyrs Marcellinus and Peter in P. E. Dutton, (ed. and trans.), Charlemagne s Courtier: The complete Einhard (Peterborough, Ontario, 2003), pp , unless otherwise stated. Round brackets are my own; square brackets are Dutton s. For the dating of this text to 830 see M. Heinzelmann, Einhard s Translatio Marcellini et Petri: Eine hagiographische Reformschrift von 830, in Einhard: Studien zu Leben und Werk, ed. H. Schefers (Darmstadt, 1997), p. 278 and also, J. M. H. Smith, Emending evil ways and praising God s omnipotence : Einhard and the uses of Roman martyrs, in K. Mills and A. Grafton (eds), Conversion in late antiquity and the early middle ages: Seeing and believing (Woodbridge, 2003), p Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri auctore Einhardo, II, c. 9, p Translation from: The translation and miracles of the blessed martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, II, c. 9, p M. Heinzelmann, Une source de base de la littérature hagiographique latine: Le recueil de miracles in Hagiographie, cultures et societes, IVe-XIIe siècles: Actes du colloque organisée à Nanterre et à Paris (2-5 Mai 1979), Études Augustiniennes (1981), pp

25 translation accounts in due course. For now the text stands as an important example of representations of popular belief in such texts. Contemporary translation accounts from the early middle ages have often been seen as evidence of popular belief. Indeed, as a record of the procurement of relics of saints and their transfer from often remote locations, they are powerful representations of belief themselves. Many medieval translation accounts focus on the reactions of the populace to the arrival of relics, as Einhard s does. We are frequently given an impression of a notable outpouring of devotion, and miracles that accompany these translations are displayed as testament to the power of the saint as well as to the faith of the gathered crowds. Peter Brown observed that translations of relics came to hold the centre stage in late-antique and early medieval piety and that they allowed for public displays of piety and belief. 4 Thus relics of the saints, translations of those relics, and the miracles are presented as inextricably linked with the experiences associated with popular belief. In this paper, I would like to explore this phenomenon through a twofold approach. In the first part of the paper I shall deal with historiography concerning translation accounts in order to derive conclusions on what we should expect from these accounts. Following this I shall move on to a more detailed analysis of the hagiography of the community of St Filibert and their ninthcentury translations to establish how and why the authors of these texts incorporated information about popular piety into their works. In all of this, Einhard s account provides a useful point of reference. When Martin Heinzelmann addressed the issue of the translation account in 1979, he shed light on an area that was enjoying a new level of academic interest. 5 Not only translation accounts, but hagiographical texts in general had been the subject of much scepticism. They had been considered by many only as evidence of the superstitious nature of medieval religious belief. 6 Patrick Geary has argued that the publication of 4 P. Brown, The cult of the saints: Its rise and function in Latin Christianity (Chicago, 1981), p M. Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte und andere Quellen des Reliquienkultes, Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge Occidental (Turnhout, 1979). 6 For example, as Stephen Wilson noted in his introduction to Saints and their cults: Studies in religious sociology, folklore and history, ed. S. Wilson (Cambridge, 1983), p. 1, Ferdinand Lot stated in 1907 that most Breton saints lives were entirely devoid of historical value. F. Lot, Mélanges d Histoire Bretonne (VIe-XIe siècles) (Paris, 1907), p. 97. This sentiment, as Wilson showed, was 20

26 Graus Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merowinger in 1965 marked the point at which scholars began to turn to the legends of the saints with high hopes and enormous effort in an attempt to breathe new life into a long-ignored body of religious texts. 7 Graus believed that hagiographical texts provided an opening into the shadowy subject of medieval society. By considering the audiences of the texts, he established that whilst we could glean some historical information from them, they also enabled us to study social values. By reading what the authors believed that their audience was receptive to, we could understand something of the impact that saints and texts about the saints had on everyday life. 8 As Geary realised, this did not mean that we could treat hagiography as a transparent window into the everyday life of medieval people. 9 For one thing, these texts had their specific and personal agendas; there was a propagandistic nature in the literature that needed to be taken into account. 10 For another, the texts had foundations in textual tradition that could not be ignored. 11 Despite this, the cult of the saints and the texts that publicised, created and explained that cult, occupied an important position in medieval society and played a prominent rôle in public life particularly in the Carolingian period. 12 Heinzelmann drew on a number of conclusions derived from Graus optimistic studies, and offered his own insights. He showed that whilst complex, the evolution of the translation account had a definable context. Deriving its origins from pre- Christian tradition, the cult of the saints that developed chiefly in association with martyrs in the first millennium, bore witness to an extraordinarily popular phenomenon. 13 This popularity led in turn to a great outpouring of piety on the occasion of the translation of relics. Just as the cult of the saints had its antecedents in the pre-christian imperial world, so too did the popular reception of relics on their echoed by Robert Latouche, Mélanges d histoire de Cornouaille Ve-XIe siècles (Paris, 1911). Each is an individual example of a widespread contention. This despite the assertions of Hippolyte Delehaye who set out the historical basis for the study of saints lives in 1905: H. Delehaye, The legends of the saints, trans. D. Attwater (Dublin, 1998). 7 P. J. Geary, Living with the dead in the middle ages (Ithaca, New York, 1994), p F. Graus, Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merowinger: Studien zur Hagiographie der Merowingerzeit (Prague, 1965), especially his section on the legends of the saints and the people, pp For a brief discussion of his principal arguments see Geary, Living with the dead, pp Geary, Living with the dead, p Ibid., p Ibid., pp Heinzelmann, Une source de base, p For links to the classical cult of heroes see Brown, The cult of the saints, pp

27 arrival at a new site following translation. 14 For Heinzelmann, as for Brown, when people lined the streets or gathered in huge numbers to witness the arrival of a saint as we have seen them do in Einhard s Translatio, they did so in remembrance of the Roman Adventus ceremony that welcomed the emperor into his cities. 15 But what of the accounts themselves? Things began to change in regard to these during the late eighth and the ninth centuries. In 787 at Nicaea, 16 the Byzantine Church declared that it required relics to be included in every church altar and Charlemagne repeated this demand at Mainz in These decrees roughly coincided with a period of favourable contact between the papacy and the emerging Carolingian dynasty in the Frankish kingdoms that was based on mutual support. 18 Prior to this, the Roman Church had resisted the translation of corporeal relics to the West, and the Frankish kingdoms and others had relied on secondary relics, such as clothing or personal items. 19 In the eighth and ninth centuries, bodies began to be moved from Rome. When Einhard wrote his Translatio he was therefore responding to an original set of circumstances. It is generally agreed that Einhard s translation account sparked the emergence of a new sub-genre that was dealing with the movement of bodily relics. 20 Partly because of his influence as one of the first pens of the Carolingian empire, partly because the things about which he wrote required a new form of literature in order to explain and justify them, it was from the moment of the publication of his work that the genre blossomed Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte, p Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte, pp See also Brown, The cult of the saints, pp Act VII: Quod templa noviter sine reconditis sanctorum reliquiis dedicata oprteat suppleri. in J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, vol. 13 (Florence, 1767), pp On the decree at the synod of Mainz see P. J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of relics in the central middle ages (2 nd edition, Princeton, 1990), p On initial contacts between the Carolingians and Rome see R. Schieffer, Charlemagne and Rome in Early medieval Rome and the Christian West: Essays in honour of Donald A. Bullough, ed. J. M. H. Smith (Leiden, 2000), pp , J. L. Nelson, The Lord s anointed and the people s choice: Carolingian royal ritual in The Frankish world, , ed. J. L. Nelson (London, 1996), pp especially pp and pp , R. Balzaretti, Charlemagne in Italy in History Today, 46 (2) (1996), pp and J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983), pp Wilson (ed.), Saints and their cults, pp 1-8 offers a general discussion of this process. See also Geary, Furta Sacra, pp Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte, p Heinzelmann, Une source de base, pp Dutton (ed. and trans.), Charlemagne s courtier, p. xxiv. 21 Heinzelmann, Une source de base, p

28 In the case of Einhard s Translatio the agendas of the author are relatively clear. His personal statement was that he wished to arouse the minds of all through examples of the lives and deeds of the just, to emending evil ways and praising God s omnipotence. 22 Julia Smith borrowed this statement as the title for her exploration of Einhard s text. She showed that there were numerous reasons that he penned his account. For one, he was keenly interested in promoting the cult that he established at Mulinheim as a new centre of correct Christianity that could help to lead the people of the empire on a royally sanctioned program of correctio. 23 He also had some personal agendas. As an influential member of the imperial court, but one that now lived at a distance from the centres of power, Einhard needed to maintain his position. The control of a prosperous relic cult could certainly help him to achieve that. There was a definite element of advertisement in his text then, but there was also strong critique of his rivals. His account relates that the archchaplain and abbot of St-Denis, Hilduin, had taken some of the relics of Marcellinus while they were en route from Rome. 24 Through this story Einhard was able to attack Hilduin, who was a clear rival at court and who had become a rival in the cultic sense in 825 when he had procured Roman relics for himself. In describing the return of the stolen relics, he exposed Hilduin as a thief and implied that his own possession of the relics was justified. Einhard s right to the relics was indicated by miracles that occurred once the relics were brought back together. 25 The miracles revealed that the relics were in their rightful place and responded to the surge of popular devotion that their arrival at Mulinheim caused. The first account that Einhard described illustrates both of these things. One of emperor Louis the Pious chamberlains, named Drogo, was, we are told, seized by a fever. Einhard wrote that, after Abbot Hilduin returned the relics of... Marcellinus..., [Drogo] was advised in his sleep to come to my chapel... He was to pray to Saint Marcellinus... He believed the one urging him and did what had been 22 This translation is from Smith, Emending evil ways, p Ibid., p On the Carolingian policy of correctio see P. Brown, The rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and diversity, A.D (2 nd edition, Oxford, 2003), pp Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri auctore Einhardo, II, cc 1-3, pp Translation from: The translation and miracles of the blessed martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, II, cc 1-3, pp Einhard makes this point very clearly through the relation of a miraculous occurrence in the chapter immediately following that in which he received the relics back from Hilduin. Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri auctore Einhardo, II, c. 4, p Translation from: The translation and miracles of the blessed martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, II, c. 4, p

29 ordered as quickly as he could. He was afterwards cured immediately. 26 Einhard s text was complex and multi-layered. Whilst he clearly viewed advertisement as important (around a third of his book is devoted to the miracle accounts), 27 he also understood that the text could be used for his own particular ends, such as for an attack on Hilduin and even incorporated reference to Hilduin s theft of the relics of Marcellinus into his miracle accounts. Two principal conclusions can be made from our analysis so far. Firstly, there is a clear argument that translation accounts indicate a high level of popular devotion to the saint in its new locus and/or at the moment of its arrival at that new locus. This popular devotion is the focus for miracles that witness the power of the saint and justify the belief that has been shown through popular acclaim, whilst also solidifying and creating further belief in the saint. Secondly, there is the argument that the same translation accounts were written to provide answers to specific problems. The authors of these accounts had their individual agendas in creating them that must be considered. As one of those agendas was certainly to advertise the healing ability of the saint and thereby to create interest in and devotion to the saint we are presented with a contradiction. How can we reconcile the use of a translation account as an example of popular belief whilst acknowledging the propagandistic nature of this literature that Geary pointed towards? In the second part of this paper I would like to explore that question through analysis of a famous example of a ninth-century Carolingian translation account, De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Filiberti. 28 Written shortly after Einhard s Translatio by a member of the community of St Filibert named Ermentarius, this text describes a series of translations of St Filibert and his community that took place between 836 and As a successor to Einhard s text (Ermentarius wrote book one of his work in around 838), it might be expected that his account would follow many 26 Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri auctore Einhardo, IV, c. 1, p Translation from: The translation and miracles of the blessed martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, IV, c. 1, p Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri auctore Einhardo, IV, pp Translation from: The translation and miracles of the blessed martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, IV, pp Ermentarius, De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Filiberti in R. Poupardin (ed.), Monuments de l histoire des abbayes de Saint-Philibert (Noirmoutier, Grandlieu, Tournus) (Paris, 1905). 29 For details on these dates and other discussion of the texts see the introduction in Poupardin (ed.), Monuments, pp xxv-xxxvii. 24

30 of the recently established conventions. But there were differences that can help us to understand how popular belief was represented. For one thing the authors agendas differed. Ermentarius was describing a number of translations that took place throughout the ninth century. He described each as being forced on the community by the activities of the Vikings in the Frankish kingdoms, but closer inspection reveals that many of the translations helped to improve the standing of the community and to draw them into high political circles. A definite aim of his texts was to gain patronage from Hilduin of Saint-Denis and from Charles the Bald, king of the West Franks. Ermentarius sent his first text to these two with a preface that requested their aid. 30 During the course of the ninth-century, and as he wrote more, he began to answer the needs of the community by providing them with an element of identity through the topos of Viking attack that he used to characterise his work in response to their numerous translations during which that identity had been lost. Ermentarius texts describe the details of the translations of the relics and the community of St Filibert from their home at Noirmoutier, to Déas in the Vendée in 836 and then from there to Cunault on the banks of the Loire in c. 845, and to Messais in Poitou in 865. Ermentarius first book describes this first transfer, whilst the second, completed shortly after the monks reached Messais in 865, describes the latter two. I shall focus my discussion on the first book. From the outset of the text the involvement of the public in the process and their interest in the relics of Filibert is made clear. In chapter two, Ermentarius relates details of the translation. Filibert s remains were taken across to the mainland by boat and were kept in the marble sarcophagus that had been brought from Noirmoutier. On setting them down in the church at the coastal village of l Ampan, the monks were inundated with crowds of people who wished to venerate the saint; the people flocked together to that place in no small number, wrote Ermentarius, they all rejoiced and bore the saint up on a bier... These people hold amongst their beliefs that whatever sickness has oppressed them they can be saved by the merits of the saint The text of the first book of miracles was sent along with a revised version of an earlier Vita Filiberti to Hilduin and Charles in Ermentarius, De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Filiberti, I, c. ii, p

31 In this short passage, Ermentarius sets out the two main elements that exist in his and other accounts in relation to popular belief. Relics caused a great deal of public interest and the populace expected miracles to be channelled through them. The act of moving the relics aroused much interest. This may be due in part to the fact that the Filibertine monks had brought their relics onto the mainland for the first time and so had made them more accessible than before. Although the island of Noirmoutier is attached to the mainland at low tide, the existence of local shrines may have led many who were not especially devoted to Filibert in particular to seek a more convenient shrine until 836. However, we have seen from Einhard s account that the movement of the relics of Marcellinus and Peter caused considerable interest too. By the time that the events described in that extract were underway, those relics had been at Mulinheim for some months. 32 The first swell of interest occasioned by their arrival from Rome was over and yet Einhard s journey to Mulinheim with the retrieved portion of the relics became what Smith described as a triumphal six-day procession through the countryside. 33 When Einhard took the relics from their first destination at Michelstadt to Mulinheim, he rode ahead of the party that was carrying them to make preparations for their arrival at Mulinheim but also, Smith argued, spread the word amongst the local populace. 34 Because people were ready for the arrival of the relics, the procession was greeted by large numbers. Einhard had gone to a great deal of trouble to make sure that the interest of the pious was aroused. It is not unlikely that he did the same when he returned to Aachen to make sure that he had the complete set of relics, retrieving the portion that Hilduin had taken. Nor is it unlikely that the Filibertine community had prepared the way for the reception of their relics on the Frankish mainland in 836. To read on in Ermentarius account is to discover that a similar procession occurred in that instance too. On 7 June 836, the community left Noirmoutier. 35 They landed at a port near Fromentine on 8 June and then moved to l Ampan where they stayed for 32 The prolonged process of regaining the relics from Hilduin is described in, Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri auctore Einhardo, II, pp and The translation and miracles of the blessed martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, II, pp Smith, Emending evil ways, p Ibid., p Ermentarius, De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Filiberti, I, c. ii, p

32 two days. From l Ampan the Filibertine procession made its way to Bois-de-Céné, where the saint was settled in a camp for the night. On the morning of the 11 th they moved to Paulx where they rested again and then finally went on to Déas where the relics stayed. 36 All of the villages lie on the route to Déas, but the texts reveal a level of preparedness on the part of the monks that suggests that this was a highly stagemanaged event and not simply a result of word of mouth information in these localities. It seems that from the moment that the relics arrived at l Ampan there was an element of organisation. The monks had carried the sarcophagus themselves until this point but now a part of the crowd that had gathered lifted it onto a bier and carried it off. 37 They were prepared to become a part of the procession. By the time that the procession had reached Paulx, tents had been erected for the use of the monks in which they stayed for the night, 38 before going to Déas where Ermentarius tells us that crowds came together from every direction to be involved in the arrival that they were all eager for. 39 Although these events took place in 836, the monks had been preparing the site at Déas for their translation there since at least By 836, they were well-organised and had taken the opportunities available to them to publicise their impending activities. Providing information to the populace had a result that was of advantage to the community and to those to whom the arrival had been advertised. For the Filibertines the involvement of the locals allowed for the cult to have an immediate impact and helped to establish the monastic community in the cultic landscape. By advertising their relics in an efficient manner, both Einhard and the Filibertines gave themselves the greatest possible chance of success. 36 These events are related throughout Ermentarius, De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Filiberti, I, cc i-lxxx, pp Discussion of the dates is provided in Poupardin, Monuments, p. xxix. 37 Ermentarius, De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Filiberti, I, c. ii, p Ibid., I, c. xvi, p Ibid., I, c. xxiv, p A charter from Louis the Pious that allowed abbot Arnold to divert a small river at the site for the use of the monks dates from 819. It is likely that the monks had been active at the site for a few years prior to this as the charter states that the grant was being made in favour of Arnold who had improved the new monastery because of the dangers caused by the Northmen on Noirmoutier. See Poupardin, Monuments, p. 107 and Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne, vol. 104, cols

33 It could be argued that this type of stage-management on the part of the communities or individuals involved in relic transfers diminishes the impact of local involvement; that if coerced the arrival of the population could not be considered a reflection of genuine piety and belief. However, none of the efforts involved in the organisation of these types of project would be worth anything without the possibility of positive results. In building a new monastery and in arranging for a steady procession of relics from old location to new in the presence of a knowledgeable crowd, the Filibertines had gone to a great deal of effort. The huge numbers of interested observers are testament to the success that the community had. The mutual nature of the benefits of this process is important. The narratives offered by the authors were a method of further advertising their cult. We should, in other words take account of Geary s contention that this literature contained propagandistic elements, even that it was heavily imbued with propaganda. Although we must expect some exaggeration, this need not trouble us in our search for believable representations of popular piety because the propagandistic elements would be inconceivable unless they might be effective. In Einhard s and in Ermentarius texts, these details should be considered strong evidence for the involvement of the populace in their movements. That so many of the accounts of this type are full of incidents that prove to be a draw to the populace should not be seen as problematic. Rather we should consider them a reflection of a significant undercurrent of interest in the activities of the saints. The whole industry surrounding saints and their relics revolved around the interested parties that people like Ermentarius described. It is important to remember that writers like this were working in a world and from a position in which belief in the power of saints and their relics was very real. The level of popular interest was so high that wide travel to shrines was commonplace. 41 Ermentarius first book alone describes over seventy-five miracles, the great majority of which occurred to people who actively sought help from St Filibert and who travelled to gain that help. 42 Some travelled great distances such as a man named 41 Smith, Emending evil ways, p Ermentarius, De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Filiberti, I, cc i-lxxx, pp

34 Baldradus. His example extends the impression that the translation was well planned and highly publicised and informs us once more of the involvement of belief in this narrative. A blind man of twenty years, Baldradus is said to have travelled around one hundred miles to appeal to St Filibert. 43 He arrived to meet the procession whilst it was at l Ampan. The precision in the timing of his arrival and the distance that he had travelled both indicate that this event had been widely publicised. Ermentarius states that Baldradus came in full faith and prostrated himself before the relics. On acknowledging his sinfulness and on declaring his belief in the power of God and that of St Filibert, he was rewarded with the restoration of his sight. In travelling so far, Baldradus had made a physical demonstration of his faith in the healing power of St Filibert which he had then backed up with a spoken declaration of the same faith. His belief was immediately rewarded and the story provided a clear message that incorporated these factors. 44 The fact that Baldradus had travelled so far also indicated that he had eschewed other choices in favour of visiting the relics of St Filibert, and the success of his endeavour after twenty years of blindness emphasised the results of belief in Filibert. This is just one example of the way in which Ermentarius narrative works. Other miracles are described that also emphasise the requirement of belief prior to the granting of a cure. He does not restrict himself to descriptions of favourable action on the part of Filibert though. We also have examples of bad things that could happen to those who did not show that they believed in St Filibert s abilities. In an account of a miracle that occurred at Déas, Ermentarius refers to a blind woman who attempted to gain a miraculous cure from another saint from the region. She is described as being a certain woman of St Martin. 45 Rather than being a reference to the famous cult of St Martin at Tours, this is probably a reference to the community of St Martin de Vertou who were already established only a few miles from Déas. The description of her as of St Martin may suggest that she was somehow associated with that community but certainly represents that she had at least appealed to Martin for aid. However, when she arrived at Déas, she was still afflicted. Appeal to Martin had not 43 He came from the district of Gorron in Mayenne. 44 Ermentarius, De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Filiberti, I, c. vi, p Ibid., I, c. xl, pp

35 worked. She was persuaded to approach the shrine but could not be persuaded to believe in the healing powers of a piece of the bier that had transported the saint and that had recently been used to cure another. Taking a piece of the bier she threw it into a fire upon which action the flames flared up and burned away her right eye. 46 Filibert had punished her for her lack of belief. Clearly there is a message to the audience here. Not only is Filibert being advertised as a capable healer whose efficacy can be trusted over those of neighbouring cults, but a warning is being given to those who do not show proper respect to the saint. We are shown that whilst there is a need to interest the local population, there are rules that must be obeyed by those that take up the offer of saintly assistance. There is no guarantee of a cure and if the pilgrim seeks a cure without believing sufficiently in the saint, then a punitive response can be expected. It is also clear that appeal to the other saints of the region is presented as ineffectual as it is throughout the text. This again represents the two-sided nature of the relationship between cult and population, but it also shows us that belief is not to be taken for granted. This negative representation of the relationships created through belief offers an element of realism to our investigation, albeit one that does so through an example that we may not necessarily give credence to. But when a community that was actively seeking interest through their actions and their texts saw fit to warn their audience of this potentiality they showed that they had a real concern for the depth of belief of their audience as well as the number of people that they could attract. Whether there really were those who sought to take advantage of a cult like that of St Filibert in a cynical manner as in the previous example, we cannot say. We can, however, draw useful conclusions from this type of account. With this account we see that belief is something that the monks in question can use to their advantage, and something that has a specific rôle within the reciprocal interaction that they sought. They needed belief to achieve success and to survive, but they could also teach lessons about the dangers of a lack of belief and thereby admonish those who did not believe through their texts. In other words they could assume a pastoral rôle within the local populace that was at the same time their audience and their client base. 46 Ibid., I, c. xl, pp

36 The complexity of the genre is revealed through the diversity of representations of belief. It may be that certain isolated elements of the texts, such as the Adventus-like ceremonial, or the punitive actions of the saints, are exaggerated or even invented to create maximum effect. We should be wary of discounting these elements on the basis of our modern mentalities, but it may be that we should see Adventus descriptions as more crucial to the emerging literary style than factual. What we see more prominently, however, is a range of methods used by our authors to represent what was certainly a real public interest in their saints and in the communities that controlled them. This interest was so important to the community in question that it was worth going to great lengths to elicit a response when transporting relics into a new setting. Effective management of these situations brought great reward; it enabled the community and the relic to fully establish itself in this new cultural and cultic landscape. Julia Smith pointed out that when the community moved, communities needed their audience, their miracles and the witnesses to them, and they needed people to discuss the happenings. In all of this they made assumptions concerning the receptiveness of their audience to the saints, and the translation initiated that receptiveness and those responses. 47 In return for their involvement and crucially in return for their belief, the devotees might receive miraculous assistance and cures. Another factor, as we have just seen, was the way in which a lack of belief could be punished by the saint. The community had no wish to procure interest from the wrong type of person and when they did the results could be harsh. The resolution to this type of problem might be wholly punitive, but at times it also taught a valuable spiritual lesson and initiated yet more belief. All of these things and more are apparent in translation narratives. They do, as Graus suggested, provide us with a rare glimpse of the social history of the normal inhabitant of the medieval West, 48 but they give an equally important glimpse into the mentalities of those men who wrote these texts. For them the text was many things. It could be used to advertise and improve the standing of a cult; it could also be used to teach the audience, to remind people of the need to believe in the power of the saints 47 Smith, Emending evil ways, p Graus, Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger, pp

37 and to show the potential rewards of belief and the potential response to unbelief. It could remind the monastic audience of the pastoral rôle that they had too. Whilst we have been interested in these elements of the texts we have only briefly considered other motives that the authors had. That we can discuss the representations of popular belief with only a minimal reference to important literary elements reemphasises the richness of these accounts. Brown said that translations of relics came to hold the centre stage in late-antique and early medieval piety. 49 We have seen some of the ways that they did that but the texts that dealt with the translations of relics did not place medieval piety on their own centre stage. That they are nevertheless replete with references to piety speaks volumes of the importance of it both textually and actually. We began this investigation with a difficult contradiction that these texts had established agendas and were beginning to become a part of a literary genre that had its own rules and methods but that they were also mines of information on the very real ways in which belief affected society. Through discussion of the way in which these texts evolved and through the way in which they have been seen we have been able to get to grips with the messages that they present. In light of all of this, I would argue that there is not really a contradiction at all, but rather that the texts use representations of belief and of piety in a way that aids their literary intentions and in so doing, also reveal a great deal about belief itself. Bibliography: BALZARETTI, R., Charlemagne in Italy in History Today, 46 (2) (1996), pp BROWN, P., The cult of the saints: Its rise and function in Latin Christianity (Chicago, 1981). BROWN, P., The rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and diversity, A.D (2 nd edition, Oxford, 2003). DELEHAYE, H., The legends of the saints, trans. D. Attwater (Dublin, 1998). DUTTON, P. E. (ed. and trans.), Charlemagne s Courtier: The complete Einhard (Peterborough, Ontario, 2003). GEARY, P. J., Furta Sacra: Thefts of relics in the central middle ages (2 nd edition, Princeton, 1990). 49 Brown, The cult of the saints, p

38 GEARY, P. J., Living with the dead in the middle ages (Ithaca, New York, 1994). Quest GRAUS, F., Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merowinger: Studien zur Hagiographie der Merowingerzeit (Prague, 1965). HEINZELMANN, M., Einhard s Translatio Marcellini et Petri: Eine hagiographische Reformschrift von 830, in Einhard: Studien zu Leben und Werk, ed. H. Schefers (Darmstadt, 1997), pp HEINZELMANN, M., Une source de base de la littérature hagiographique latine: Le recueil de miracles in Hagiographie, cultures et societes, IVe-XIIe siècles: Actes du colloque organisée à Nanterre et à Paris (2-5 Mai 1979), Études Augustiniennes (1981), pp HEINZELMANN, M., Translationsberichte und andere Quellen des Reliquienkultes, Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge Occidental (Turnhout, 1979). LATOUCHE, R., Mélanges d histoire de Cornouaille Ve-XIe siècles (Paris, 1911). LOT, F., Mélanges d Histoire Bretonne (VIe-XIe siècles) (Paris, 1907). MANSI, J. D. (ed.), Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, vol. 13 (Florence, 1767). MILLS, K., GRAFTON, A. (eds), Conversion in late antiquity and the early middle ages: Seeing and believing (Woodbridge, 2003). NELSON, J. L., The Frankish world, (London, 1996). NELSON, J. L., The Lord s anointed and the people s choice: Carolingian royal ritual in The Frankish world, , ed. J. L. Nelson (London, 1996), pp POUPARDIN, R. (ed.), Monuments de l histoire des abbayes de Saint-Philibert (Noirmoutier, Grandlieu, Tournus) (Paris, 1905). SCHEFERS, H. (ed.), Einhard: Studien zu Leben und Werk (Darmstadt, 1997). SCHIEFFER, R., Charlemagne and Rome in Early medieval Rome and the Christian West: Essays in honour of Donald A. Bullough, ed. J. M. H. Smith (Leiden, 2000), pp SMITH, J. M. H. (ed.), Early medieval Rome and the Christian West: Essays in honour of Donald A. Bullough (Leiden, 2000). SMITH, J. M. H., Emending evil ways and praising God s omnipotence : Einhard and the uses of Roman martyrs, in K. Mills and A. Grafton (eds), Conversion in late antiquity and the early middle ages: Seeing and believing (Woodbridge, 2003), pp WAITZ, G. (ed.), Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri auctore Einhardo in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores, xv, 1 (Hanover, 1888), pp WALLACE-HADRILL, J. M., The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983). WILSON, S. (ed.), Saints and their cults: Studies in religious sociology, folklore and history (Cambridge, 1983). 33

39 ST EDMUND OF EAST ANGLIA AND HIS MIRACLES THROUGH THE CENTURIES: VARIATIONS IN LITERATURE AND ART. Ilaria Fornasini, University of Verona, Italy Less than two years ago, at the end of 2006, St Edmund was a news item in the English local and national media. BBC Radio Suffolk and The East Anglian Daily Times led an intensive campaign for St Edmund to be reinstated as England's patron saint, instead of St George. They even took a petition to 10 Downing Street and the House of Commons. The British government later refused to relieve St George of his title, but Suffolk County Council officially adopted St Edmund as the patron saint of Suffolk. 1 Despite this lack of success, the action was attempted in order to restore Edmund s position before the Norman Conquest, following introduction of a foreign patron saint for England St George who gradually overcame local patron saints (such as St Germaine, St Botolph, St Walstan, St Felix, St Aethelbert and St Fursa) in prestige, albeit not in support. St Edmund was an Anglo-Saxon Christian king who ruled the realm of East Anglia between 855 and 869 AD. The earliest sources about him date back to the end of the ninth century, for example, a passage in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle describing his death 2 and the so-called St Edmund Memorial Coinage (circa AD). These sources testify to the king s early reputation as a saint man. 3 From that moment onwards, truth and legend begin to intermingle. Abbo of Fleury in his Life of St Edmund (985 AD) states that Edmund was ex antiquorum Saxonum nobili prosapia oriundus, 4 which seems to link the saint with a continental Old Saxon origin. However, the earliest and most reliable accounts present him as descending from the preceding line of Wuffing kings of East Anglia. Nevertheless, the legend of his continental origin was later expanded, adding particulars about Edmund's parents (the 1 British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC Radio Suffolk Campaign to make St Edmund the patron saint of England ( ) [ ]. 2 B. Thorpe (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (2 vols, London, 1861), i, 135; ibid., ii, C. E. Blunt, The St Edmund Memorial Coinage in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, xxxi (1969), pp Abbo of Fleury, Passio Sancti Edmundi Regis et Martyris, iii, vv 3-5, in M. Winterbottom, Ælfric s Three Lives of English Saints (Toronto, 1972), p

40 otherwise unknown Alcmund and Siware), his birth at Nuremberg, his adoption and succession to King Æthelweard of East Anglia, and his journey to England to claim his kingdom. Edmund was said to have been crowned at the age of just fourteen years by St Humbert on 25 December 855 in the then royal capital Burna, (probably Bures St Mary, Suffolk). 5 Almost nothing is known of his life and reign, though he was recorded as a just and uncompromising ruler, the embodiment of the Greek ideal of the kalòs kai agathòs that is, the right balance of the Good and the Beautiful, the combination of virtues that could create the perfect nobleman. As stated in Asser's Life of King Alfred (893 AD), King Edmund was killed in battle, during a confrontation with the Danish invaders Ubbe Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless (in other traditions called also Hubba and Ingwar): 6 It is not known if he was simply killed in action or condemned to death after denying to submit to the invaders and to renounce his faith. Abbo of Fleury adds some particulars to this account, claiming that his Archbishop related the story as he heard it in his youth from a very old man claiming to have been King Edmund's armour bearer at the time of his death. These additions include the imprisonment of the king, the tortures inflicted on him and his passion: he was whipped and lashed while tied to a tree, then shot with arrows and decapitated. According to this story, his head was then cast away in the forest, and guarded by a grey wolf until some devoted people came to rescue it. They were guided to the site by the head s calling here, here, here. The head of the king, miraculously reunited with his body, was then buried in a small chapel and later moved to a larger church in Beodericsworth later called Bury St Edmunds. Edmund's popularity among the English people, noble and common, was both sudden and lasting. The shrine at Bury St Edmunds quickly became one of the most famous and wealthy pilgrimage locations in England, and his banner was borne in battles, 5 P. Dearmer, The Little Lives of the Saints (London, 1904), p D. Whitelock, Fact and Fiction in the Legend of St. Edmund in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, xxxi (1969), pp ; I. P. McKeehan, Some Relationships between the Medieval Legends of British Saints and Medieval Romance (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1923), p

41 such as the Battle of Agincourt in His fame was increased by the number of miracles performed by the saint or attributed to his intervention, and carefully recorded by the monks of the abbey guarding the shrine. The powerful Bury St Edmunds abbey, before its dissolution in 1539, was one of the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, with extensive lands and rights in Suffolk and links to the court. It was also a centre of artistic splendour and culture, with a rich library and frequent contacts with the University of Oxford. Its close connection to the court provided strong patronage from various kings (such as Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III), who also used to pay visits to the abbey. 7 In 1433, the twelve year old King Henry VI spent the period from Christmas through Easter to St George s Day (March 28) of the following year visiting the abbey, and at the end of his stay he received the honour to becoming a member of the abbey fraternity. The message from the council anticipating the royal visit arrived to Abbot Curteys only eight weeks in advance: he immediately commenced work to enlarge the abbot s palace, in order to better lodge the king, 8 and asked the renowned writer and monk of St Edmunds, John Lydgate (at that time already well known for his works, especially the Troy Book, the Siege of Thebes and the Life of our Lady ), to write a life of St Edmund to be presented as a gift to the young king. The author decided to add the life of St Fremund, King Edmund s cousin also to this account, thus creating a double hagiography, an uncommon typology used again by Lydgate in a later work, the Lives of SS Alban and Amphibal. It is improbable that the work was finished for the king s arrival, or even before his departure from the abbey, being a massive composition of 3700 verses, accompanied by 120 miniatures which run alongside the whole text, thus probably creating one of the most beautiful manuscripts of the 15 th century. This book, now called Harley MS 2278, 9 is composed of 119 parchment sheets. Each leaf approximately measures 25 x 17 cm, while the text, the miniatures and any litterae notabiliores (i.e., enlarged or decorated letters) are all arranged into a single column space justification, open ruled, measuring 14 x 11 cm. The quires 7 A. B. Whittingham, Bury St. Edmunds Abbey, Suffolk in Archaeological Journal, 108 (1971), pp T. Arnold (ed.), Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey (3 vols, London, 1890), iii, pp xxx-xxxix. 9 A. S. G. Edwards (ed.), The life of St. Edmund, king & martyr: John Lydgate's illustrated verse life presented to Henry VI: a facsimile of British Library ms Harley 2278 (London, 2004), passim. 36

42 consist of eight sheets each, except for the first (made of six sheets) and the last one (made of just two sheets). Catchwords are written in the margin on the last page of each section. The manuscript follows Gregory s rule, having each quire starting with the hair side, and then alternatively facing the hair and the flesh sides of the sheets. The ductus reveals that there was a single hand writing the whole text: he used a pointy, formal and regular bastarda anglicana. 10 The 120 miniatures were created by at least three limners: the master illustrator was probably of foreign origin (as the Flemish influences may suggest), and was helped by an assistant following his style and by another limner, who occasionally overlapped with the previous work, while completing the last part of the book. 11 There is a good chance that it was written under the direct supervision of John Lydgate, therefore it is also probable that he had an active role in the assessment of the display of both text and illustrations. In fact, the written and iconographic texts are strongly connected: the verses are often following the image they refer to, hence creating an expansion of meaning by underlining the message and also by adding some supplementary visual features. Lydgate almost certainly drew his inspiration from older sources relating the life of the patron saint of his abbey: these were probably preserved in the abbey s library. He mostly followed Abbo s work, 12 however adding some undertones, concerning politics (the saint is presented as a role model to the young king) and religion (by almost creating a parallel between the passion of St Edmund and that of Christ), as well as an epic (the poem is regarded as a legendenepos). He divided his work into three books: the first two relate Edmund s life and death, while the third is dedicated to the story of Edmund s holy cousin, the otherwise unknown St Fremund, who came to avenge Edmund s death and was later slain while praying and thanking God for the victory over the Danish invaders. At the end of the last book, as was customary, 13 Lydgate decided to add a further section wholly dedicated to the miracles ascribed to 10 C. E. Wright, English Vernacular Hands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Centuries (Oxford, 1960), p K. L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts: (2 vols, London, 1996), ii, Arnold (ed.), Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, iii, pp xlviii-li. 13 A. Dierkens, Réflexions sur le miracle au Haut Moyen Âge in Miracles, prodiges et merveilles au Moyen Âge. Actes du XXVe Congrès de la Société des Historiens Médiévistes de l Enseignement Public, Orléans, 3-5 juin 1994 (Paris, 1995), p. 17; M. E. Goodich, A note on sainthood in the Hagiographical prologue in idem, Lives and Miracles of the Saints: Studies in Medieval Latin Hagiography (Aldershot, 2004), p

43 St Edmund after his burial. Particular records of these miraculous events were kept by the guardians of the shrine 14 at least from the time of the translation of the relics to Beodricsworth in 903 AD: 15 These first sources are now lost but part of their contents reach us through later works, firstly Abbo s Life of St Edmund and the Miracula Beati Edmundi Regis of Hermann the Archdeacon, alongside the collections of miracles compiled by Osbern of Clare and the Abbot Samson of Bury (MSS Titus A. VIII and Bodley 240). These chronicles include miracles which occurred until 1375 in Bury St Edmunds as well as other parts of England and abroad (Angers, Lucca, Santiago de Compostela, etc.). 16 John Lydgate decided to recount only a small portion of these events: in fact, there are only eight miracles described in the last book of his work, but they are illustrated by as many as 15 miniatures. These events happened in a time-span starting from the burial of the saint in the first chapel built to protect his body (869 AD) until the election of Abbot Baldwin and the building of the shrine (1095 AD). The miracles written by John Lydgate seem to have been specifically chosen, creating a sort of manifesto of the power of the abbey and of its patron saint. In fact, this section begins with the narration of a subsequent Danish invasion, led by King Sweyn. In order to protect his abbey and his devotees, St Edmund appears to a monk, named Ailwyn, and urges him to go to King Sweyn exhorting him to leave. The Dane refuses and in the following miniature, St Edmund takes revenge on him by appearing in his castle, fully armed, and killing him with a spear. Amazingly, this marvel is announced by a dying mute man, miles away from the King s castle. Then, Lydgate refers of the rescue of a woman, chased by Sheriff Leofstan inside the sacred shrine, where she was trying to take refuge: she is put to death and, as soon as this happens, an evil spirit appears and drives the Sheriff mad before taking his soul away. The following two miniatures refer to a group of thieves robbing horses and goods from the abbey. The monks appear to be desperate and powerless; the intercession of the saint makes the thieves go insane and come back to the abbey to return everything and solemnly repent in front of the shrine. The next miracle recounts a Flemish pilgrim 14 B. Ward, Miracles and the Medieval Mind: Theory, Record and Event (London, 1982), pp Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, i, Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, i,

44 tries to steal some precious stones from the shrine by removing them with his mouth while kissing them in devotion: the revenge of the saint makes him get stuck to the shrine until he repents. After that, the vengeance taken on the Danish lord Osgoth for despising the saint is illustrated in a beautiful miniature showing three subsequent events in just one scene. Osgoth is seized by madness, and then restored to sanity when he repents. The next miniature lets us follow the relics of St Edmund, carried by the monk Ailwyn, during their transportation to London (1010 AD) in order to preserve them from another Danish invasion. Marvellous things happen during their journey, such as the fire set to the house of a priest who denied them hospitality, but also the healing of various people. After three years, the bishop of the church of St Gregory, where Edmund s shrine was located, secretly tried to transport it to another church in order to keep it in London. Despite the number of monks trying to lift the shrine, it stays firm until the arrival of Ailwyn, who immediately takes it back to Bury. On the way back, the saint heals a devout man who offered them hospitality in his manor. This is the last miraculous event referred to by Lydgate. Grouping together these miracles according to their main features, there are two visions, two episodes of rescue, three violent instances of revenge and another three acts of punishment followed by forgiveness, as well as some minor healings. This ratio is striking, given the usual preponderance of healing miracles 17 over the other areas ascribed to wonder, such as punishment and salvation. 18 This probably reflects the Zeitgeist and the necessity for the then growing abbey of St Edmund and his cult to be seen as dominant and protected by the power of God (whose providence and saving grace were believed to allow every miracle to happen). In fact, the monks could not ward off force by force in contrast to the power of kings and lords, so they had to rely on a shielding figure: 19 this is probably the reason why Edmund mostly embodies the distinctive features of a knight rather than those of a saint, in this way recalling some common chivalric elements M. E. Goodich, Cult and Miracle in the Fourteenth Century in idem, Violence and Miracle in the Fourteenth Century: Private Grief and Public Salvation (Chicago, 1995), p Ibid., pp Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, i, McKeehan, Some Relationships between the Medieval Legends of British Saints and Medieval Romance, p

45 By analyzing two other collections of miracles attributed to St Edmund, it is possible to compare some indicative records. Of the 55 miracles reported in Samsonis Abbatis Opus De Miraculis Sancti Aedmundi, are related to healing, 9 to revenge, 7 to visions (which are often linked to other graces), 22 6 to salvations and one to liberation. MS Bodley collates 75 miracles (some of which are present in other sources as already stated): of these, 37 are related to healing, 10 to salvations (mostly from shipwrecking), 9 to resolutions of problems (mostly stolen or lost things), 7 to revenge as well as liberations, while visions occur only 5 times. This latest collection kept a record of miracles which happened in later times, often personally witnessed by devotees. 24 The importance given to the healing power of St Edmund is underlined: these miracles generally happened at the shrine of the saint, but it was not unusual that they followed the relics on their journeys, as we can see in the event of the transportation of the shrine to London. Some years after the realization of the manuscript, and its presentation to King Henry VI, an interesting thing happened. In fact, Lydgate s Lives were becoming so popular, that other noblemen asked for copies. 25 In some of these later manuscripts, 26 all deriving from a lost common ancestor, an ulterior part was added: 27 this addition is to be found in the last part of the book that is the one relating St Edmund s miracles. This insertion, consisting of 58 eight-line stanzas, narrates three more miracles. These three events, illustrated by four miniatures, are characterized by two main features. Since the miracles occurred between 1441 and 1444, they are all coeval with the creation of the text, and their protagonists are always children being saved from certain death. 21 Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, ii, p. xxxix; ibid., pp liii-liv. 22 Ibid., i, Ibid., iii, pp l-lv. 24 Goodich, The Use of Direct Quotation from Canonization Hearing to Hagiographical Vita et Miracula in idem, Lives and Miracles of the Saints, pp M. C. Seymour, Some Lydgate Manuscripts: Lives of SS Edmund and Fremund and Danse Macabre in Transactions of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 5 (1985), p These manuscripts are London, British Library Yates Thompson 47; Arundel Castle sine numero; Oxford, Bodleian Library Tanner 347 and Bodleian Library Ashmole Seymour, Some Lydgate Manuscripts: Lives of SS Edmund and Fremund and Danse Macabre, p

46 In fact, the first miracle is the account of a child pulled off London Bridge by some passing oxen: (Yates Thompson MS 47, f. 94v) He is subsequently rescued by a fisherman on his boat. In the following miniature, the fisherman delivers the saved child to his mother who is standing on the shore, waiting for him. (Yates Thompson MS 47, f. 97r) 41

47 The second miracle tells of another baby pulled out from a pool of water with a long pole, and then taken in procession by his mother followed by other people. (Yates Thompson MS 47, f. 102r) The last miracle happens to a child who gets crushed by a cart; he is then restored to health and carried in procession by his mother and other devotees. (Yates Thompson MS 47, f. 103r) 42

48 In fact, the salvation of children in peril, especially from drowning, 28 is a frequent miracle and is often performed by St Edmund. This kind of miracle frequently operated as an unconscious way to unite the population and to strengthen their faith and devotion. 29 In the first edition of his work, as well as in the previous iconographic cycle, Lydgate totally neglected this particular range of miracles. With the addition of this section, the work achieves a better overview on the saint s power. Perhaps, the redressing of the saint s once choleric attitude and of his knightly features was due to the abbey already being at that time a well established and powerful institution. In these works, then, the key function of miracles is to invite the devotees to praise the Saint King, creating a continuum between his saintly life and his lifelike sainthood. The updating of the narrative has a strong effect on the perception of the saint as well as on his fame: the manifestation of miracles generally increased the reputation of the saint among his worshippers, and this amplified faith could induce the attribution of further extraordinary events to his intervention. The later revision by the author can be seen as a very useful way to attempt a reinterpretation and a improved comprehension of this saintly figure. Moreover, the addition of a text strongly connected with illuminations allows the reader to better understand the perception of this cult 30 and the needs of the believers in different historical periods. Bibliography: ARNOLD, T. (ed.), Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey (3 vols, London, 1890). BLUNT, C. E., The St Edmund Memorial Coinage in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, xxxi (1969), pp DEARMER, P., The Little Lives of the Saints (London, 1904). DIERKENS, A., Réflexions sur le miracle au Haut Moyen Âge in Miracles, prodiges et merveilles au Moyen Âge. Actes du XXVe Congrès de la Société des Historiens Médiévistes de l Enseignement Public, Orléans, 3-5 juin 1994 (Paris, 1995), pp M. E. Goodich, Canonization and the Hagiographical Text in idem, Miracles and Wonders: the Development of the Concept of Miracle, (Aldershot, 2007), p M. E. Goodich, Children as Victims in idem, Violence and Miracle in the Fourteenth Century, pp H. Edgren, Mercy and justice: miracles of the Virgin Mary in the Finnish medieval wall-paintings (Helsinki, 1993), p

49 EDGREN, H., Mercy and justice: miracles of the Virgin Mary in the Finnish medieval wall-paintings (Helsinki, 1993). EDWARDS, A. S. G. (ed.), The life of St. Edmund, king & martyr: John Lydgate's illustrated verse life presented to Henry VI: a facsimile of British Library ms Harley 2278 (London, 2004). GOODICH, M. E., Violence and Miracle in the Fourteenth Century: Private Grief and Public Salvation (Chicago, 1995). GOODICH, M. E., Lives and Miracles of the Saints: Studies in Medieval Latin Hagiography (Aldershot, 2004). GOODICH, M. E., Miracles and Wonders: the Development of the Concept of Miracle, (Aldershot, 2007). McKEEHAN, I. P., Some Relationships between the Medieval Legends of British Saints and Medieval Romance (PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1923). SCOTT, K. L., Later Gothic Manuscripts: (2 vols, London, 1996). SEYMOUR, M. C., Some Lydgate Manuscripts: Lives of SS. Edmund and Fremund and Danse Macabre in Transactions of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 5 (1985), Pp THORPE, B. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (2 vols, London, 1861). WARD, B., Miracles and the Medieval Mind: Theory, Record and Event (London, 1982). WHITELOCK, D., Fact and Fiction in the Legend of St. Edmund in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, xxxi (1969), pp WHITTINGHAM, A. B., Bury St. Edmunds Abbey, Suffolk in Archaeological Journal, 108 (1971), pp 7-9. WINTERBOTTOM, M. (ed.), Ælfric s Three Lives of English Saints (Toronto, 1972). WRIGHT, C. E., English Vernacular Hands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Centuries (Oxford, 1960). 44

50 THE LIFE OF ST RUADÁN AND THE CURSING OF TARA Judyta Szacillo, Queen s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland Quest The hagiographical sources are one of the most extensive classes of material relating to the history of the middle ages. This period was particularly fruitful for the composition of hagiography and, thanks to hagiography itself, we are provided with a vast range of information, not only on aspects of belief, cult, liturgy and church organisation, but also on social, political and cultural issues. Irish medieval hagiography has received considerable attention from historians. The focus of such research has been mainly on the earliest lives of saints (7 th to 9 th centuries). However, there is still a vast field of later writings that have not yet been fully investigated. Although the main collections of Irish saints lives were examined by Charles Plummer at the beginning of the twentieth century, 31 and subsequently by Richard Sharpe in 1991, 32 a great number of individual lives of Irish saints still await analysis and a precise dating. There are approximately one hundred extant lives written in Latin and fifty in Irish. Some of the Latin lives survive only in continental manuscripts, but most are preserved in three thirteenth- and fourteenth-century compilations (Codex Kilkenniensis, Codex Insulensis and Codex Salmanticensis). The lives written in the Irish language are known mainly from various late medieval manuscripts and seventeenth-century transcripts from originals that have now perished. These lives can be extremely useful for investigating the general cultural, social, mental and political milieux of medieval Ireland; but it is difficult to date the texts in a precise way. Out of approximately one hundred and fifty texts, only a dozen have been dated securely. 31 C. Plummer, A tentative catalogue of Irish hagiography in Miscellanea Hagiographica Hibernica, ed. idem (Brussels, 1925), pp R. Sharpe, Medieval Irish saints lives: an introduction to Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (Oxford, 1991). 45

51 Having realised the formerly underestimated usefulness of hagiography, 33 Irish medievalists started to investigate saints lives in more detail and from varying points of view; but the dating problems have still remained. In 1991, Professor Richard Sharpe made an important contribution to the study Irish medieval hagiography, providing a wide analysis of the process of compilation of the main collections of saints lives. Furthermore, he suggested some dates for a particular group of nine (or perhaps ten) lives, which he named the O Donohue group. The existence of this group was first hypothesised in 1960 by William Heist, the modern editor of the Codex Salmanticensis 34. It has now been more fully elaborated by Sharpe that an archetype of this group within the Salmanticensis collection probably originated in the late eighth or early ninth century. In other words, those nine or ten lives from the Codex Salmanticensis are supposed to have been gathered into one collection much earlier than the compiling of the Codex Salmanticensis. Among so many undated lives, the addition of nine or ten securely dated texts would be a great improvement and advance in historical knowledge. However, there is no agreement about the late eighth or early ninth century date proposed by Sharpe. His hypothesis has caused considerable debate among historians and has attracted both criticism and support; there have been attempts to confirm dates for a number of the individual lives from the so-called O Donohue group, 35 but objections have also been 33 The Irish hagiographical records remained unappreciated material well into the twentieth century. The lives of saints had been considered as quite useless for historical reconstruction (cf. K. Hughes, Early Christian Ireland: introduction to the sources (London, 1972), pp ). A new approach to the hagiographical sources has been presented by Daniel Binchy in his classic article St Patrick and his biographers: ancient and modern in Studia Hibernica, 2 (1962), pp Binchy was the first Irish historian who highlighted (in the case of St Patrick) the limitations of hagiographical texts as sources of information about the depicted period and its realities. On the other hand, Binchy pointed out that such texts are valuable sources of knowledge about perception and beliefs at the time when the hagiographer himself was writing. 34 W. W. Heist (ed.), Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae e Codice olim Salmanticensi nunc Bruxellensi. Subsidia Hagiographica, 25 (Brussels, 1965). 35 M. Herbert, The Vita Columbae and Irish hagiography: a study of Vita Cainnechi in Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, ed. J. Carey, M. Herbert, P. Ó Riain (Dublin, 2001), pp 31-40; I. Sperber, Late, and not of special distinction?: The misunderstood Life of St Fintán of Clonenagh in Ossory, Laois and Leinster, 1 (2004), pp 28-49; J. Tschen-Emmons, The limits of Late Antiquity: St. Áed mac Bricc and Ireland in Late Antiquity (PhD thesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003). 46

52 formulated. 36 No scholarly consensus has been achieved to date and no detailed investigation of the O Donohue group as a whole has been elaborated since Sharpe s hypothesised date in This paper is part of my doctoral thesis, the purpose of which is to investigate the Lives of the O Donohue group in order to provide evidence to support the dating proposed by Sharpe. The Life of St Ruadán is one of the texts of the O Donohue group. Like all the Lives from this group, it is extremely interesting and the many aspects worthy of further investigation prove impossible for one historian to follow them all. Because of the length restriction of this article, I will not be able to present all the aspects I have managed to follow. Therefore I will focus on one in particular, a very characteristic story from this Life, the story of the cursing of Tara, which earned a lot of attention during the Middle Ages in Ireland and reflects the political changes in the course of centuries. The Life of St Ruadán is preserved in three versions, two in Latin and one in Irish. The Latin recensions appear in the Codex Salmanticensis (S), Codex Kilkenniensis and Rawlinson MS B485, Bodleian Library (the latter two are copies of the same text, D). The S version has been published twice, by the Bollandists and by Heist. The edition of the D text has been given by Plummer. 37 The Irish Life is preserved in two copies, first in the Stowe IX manuscript of the RIA Library, and the second in Brussels , and it has also been published by Plummer. 38 Both Kenney and Plummer agree that all of the versions appear to go back to a common original, 39 although Kenney claimed that the original must have been quite 36 J. Carey, A review of Richard Sharpe s Medieval Irish saints lives in Speculum, 68 (1993), pp 260-2; A. P. Smyth, A review of Richard Sharpe s Medieval Irish saints lives in English Historical Review, 107 (1992), pp 676-8; P. Ó Riain, Codex Salmanticensis: a provenance inter Anglos or inter Hibernos? in A miracle of learning. Studies in manuscripts and Irish learning. Essays in honour of W. O Sullivan, ed. T. Barnard, D. Ó Cróinín, and K. Simms (Cambridge, 1998), pp C. Plummer, Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (2 vols, Oxford, 1910), ii, Vita Ruadani, pp Betha Ruadhain in Bethada Náem nérenn, ed. C. Plummer (2 vols, Oxford, 1922), i, pp J. F. Kenney, The sources for the early history of Ireland: ecclesiastical (New York, 1929), p. 392; Plummer, Vitae SS Hib., i, p. lxxxvi. 47

53 late whilst Plummer did not make any statement in the matter of dating. Kenney argued that the original form of the Life must have been written within the community of St Ruadán, because the Latin version, preserved in D, describes Ruadán as a noster senex. 40 Furthermore, he concluded that the Life of St Ruadan in its present form certainly implies that the monastery of Lorrha was a thing of the past. The problem is that the noster senex phrase appears only once and in only one version of the text; moreover, in my opinion, there are no distinct signs within the Life that the monastery of Lorrha was a thing of the past. Another interesting issue is that the name of Lorrha appears mostly in the D version. The S Life contains only one reference to Lorrha in passing in chapter 9, where it is said that the gift received by St Ruadán, an altar cloth, remained in the church of Lorrha for a very long time. 41 The descriptions of places in both recensions are very similar, but the name of Lorrha, frequent as it is in one of them, seems to be of less importance in the other. Those factors make the issue of dating much more complicated than it seemed to Kenney. Regarding the topographical details in the VRuadani, there is a distinct difference between S and D. Although, for such a short vita, there is a considerable number of place-names mentioned in S, one of the redactors of D seems to have been interested in localised geography, providing more detailed information about some places (in chapters 1, 10, 12, 19; some of these occurrences are discussed below). It is evident that both S and D (and also the Irish Life of Ruadán) derive from a common origin: the contents are the same, and the sequences of events are identical. The main differences between St Ruadán s Lives appear in stylistics (D version is more elaborated) and in the above-mentioned topographical details. There is yet another difference which may give some meaning to the understanding of the history of all the versions. The S Life is very short there are only three sentences regarding Ruadán s childhood and education, 42 and none regarding his death; and these two themes childhood and death were quite often subjected to a certain scrutiny by medieval Irish hagiographers (usually resulting with not long, but 40 Kenney, Sources, p. 392; Plummer, Vitae SS Hib., ii, Vita Ruadani, c VRuadani, c. 9: Iuvenis autem, secundum verbum Ruodani, munera non accepit nisi tantummodo lineam regis Kulann, que super altare Lothri multo fuit tempore. 42 VRuadani, c

54 significant outcomes). VRuadani is the only text in the O Donohue group in which there is nothing said about the saint s death (no miracles attached, no date, no circumstances mentioned; in fact, Ruadán s death simply does not take place in this Life). The lack of descriptions of Ruadán s childhood and death, the lack of topographical precision and consistent omissions of the name of Ruadán s main church, Lorrha, may mean that the S Life, as we have it, was somehow abbreviated or corrupted. The D text is more exact in giving topographical details, the chapter on the saint s childhood is much longer and the moment of his death is recorded and described according to a most conventional hagiographical fashion. 43 Obviously, the Irish Life cannot be compared with S and D on a level of stylistics because we are dealing with two completely different languages, but it is still possible to say on the basis of the content and expressions that the Irish Life derives from the Latin one. It is even more elaborate in descriptions and dialogues than the D text, yet it keeps the order of events and characteristic similes. Two fragments, the dialogue between St Ruadán and King Diarmait, 44 and the description of Ruadán s qualities, 45 are almost exactly the same in all three of the Lives. The S Life may have been corrupted, but may also have been written in a way close to that which we have preserved in the codex. It is noticeably the shortest text, but it contains all the main points and significant information D and the Irish Life only offer a more elaborate way of describing incidents, plus a few additional topographical remarks. 46 Thus, it seems clear that the S Life, as the most primitive one, is also the earliest. It has been noticed not only by Sharpe, 47 but also and much 43 Plummer, Vitae SS Hib., ii, Vita Ruadani, c VRuadani, c. 12 (quoted below); Plummer, Vitae SS Hib., ii, Vita Ruadani, cc 15-18; Plummer, Bethada Náem nérenn, i, Betha Ruadhain, cc xi-xiii. 45 VRuadani, c. 25 (quoted above); Plummer, Vitae SS Hib., ii, Vita Ruadani, c. 30; Plummer, Bethada Náem nérenn, i, Betha Ruadhain, c. xxii (59-60). 46 There is, however, one exceptional addition in chapter 25 of the D Life: the chapter contains a description of a miraculous transporting of a vessel filled with butter over a bog. The redactor of D supplemented the text with the name of the bog and the story associated with it, although it had no links with saint Ruadán whatsoever. This occurrence may be interpreted as just one of the signs of the redactor s abovementioned interest in geography. (The same observation has been already made by Sharpe, Medieval Irish saints Lives, p. 306.) 47 Sharpe, Medieval Irish saints Lives, pp , especially pp 305 &

55 earlier by Byrne. 48 Byrne s argument was based on the use of the word cortex ( bark, cork, shell ) in the meaning of vessel, in the S version, replaced in D by the less unusual vas. Sharpe noticed that the word cortex may have become an obsolete word by the time of the composing/editing the D Life of Ruadán. Sharpe also pointed to another occurrence of a quite uncommon word, boccetum (bocetum/bucetum: cattle pasture ), which appears in the Life of Columba by Adomnán and two other Lives from the O Donohue group: the VLugidi and the VFinani. 49 According to the Non-Classical lexicon of Celtic latinity, the word boccetum appears also in the S Life of St Daig mac Cairill and in the Bethu Brigte. 50 Apart from the Life of Daig, the date of which is unknown, 51 the rest of the sources in which the word boccetum can be found are not later than the ninth century (Vita Columbae written by 704, two O Donohue Lives: VLugidi and VFinani, presumably circa and Bethu Brigte ninth century). It seems probable that the use of boccetum may have become extinct after the ninth century. Furthermore, both Byrne and Sharpe underlined that the spelling in S indicates an early date for the composition of the Life, e.g. i Pull Ruodan (dative inflection of poll, whilst in D juxta Pollum Ruodani). 53 Thus, the primitiveness of the S Life shows itself in the spelling, examples of obsolete vocabulary, and the simple and often brief narrative form, which was later elaborated by the redactor(s) of D and the translator(s) of the Vita into Irish. According to the S Life, St Ruadán was of the Uí Duach. The Uí Duach occupied the lands in Osraige and they may have been a branch of the Eóganachta dynasty, although in the VRuadani such an association is not made. The author of the S Life mentions the name of the saint s father, Birr, 54 but in the genealogies (Book of Leinster) Ruadán is called the son of Fergus Birn. 55 In the D recension, St Ruadán is 48 Byrne, Derrynavlan: the historical context in R.S.A.I.Jn., 110 (1980), p VRuadani, c. 8; Adomnán, Vita Columbae, iii.23; VLugidi, c. 21; VFinani, c. 32; see Sharpe (ed.), Life of St Columba (London, 1995), p The non-classical lexicon of Celtic latinity, ed. A. J. R. Harvey, J. Power et al. (Turnhout, 2006), i, p. 89; Vita Dagaei, c. 20; Bethu Brigte, c Kenney described this Life as a late abridgment (Kenney, Sources, p. 384). 52 VLugidi and VFinani are discussed in corresponding chapters of the thesis in progress. 53 Sharpe, Medieval Irish saints Lives, p VRuadani, c Ó Riain, Corpus Geneaogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae (Dublin, 1985),

56 described as belonging to the Eóganachta, and his father was called Byrra and he was of the seed of Duach. 56 The author of the Irish Life offers a detailed pedigree for Ruadán, from his father Fergus Bern of the Uí Duach to Eógan Mór and Ailill Ólomm, 57 deriving Ruadán s origins straight from the founders of the Eóganachta dynasty. The S Life of Ruadán remains the only hagiographical text on Ruadán in which the name of the Eóganachta dynasty is absent. The association of Ruadán with the Eóganachta does not appear in any of two notes devoted to him in the main corpus of the text of the early ninth century Martyrology of Oengus either. 58 Thus, that association may have been of no particular importance in the eighth and ninth centuries, and started to be emphasised in a later period. There are more arguments supporting such a possibility, discussed below. The Uí Duach, as mentioned above, may have been a branch of the Eóganachta, judging by the twelfth-century sources, but it is not certain whether they are reliable on this point. The Uí Duach are associated with the Eóganachta in the glosses to the Félire Oenguso, 59 Félire huí Gormáin 60 and in the genealogies in the Book of Leinster. 61 Yet the record has been preserved in nineteenth-century studies by O Donovan and Hardiman that the Uí Duach from Osraige were believed to be kin to the Uí Máine and other peoples of Ulaid. 62 I could not find any other trace of such an association in the earlier sources. It does not mean, however, that we can exclude the possibility that the Uí Duach originated in Ulaid or that it was at some point believed that they did. They might have been from Ulaid as well as of the Eóganachta from Munster, for the association of the Uí Duach with the Eóganachta in the twelfthcentury sources seems to have been created for political reasons. Therefore, none of 56 Plummer, Vitae SS Hib., ii, Vita Ruadani, c. 1: Beatissimus abbas Ruadhanus de nobilissimo genere Hybernie, id est de gente Eoghonacht, natus est. Cuius pater Byrra uocabatur, qui ortus de semine Duach (...). 57 Plummer, Bethada Náem nérenn, i, Betha Ruadhain, c Félire Oengusso Céli Dé, ed. W. Stokes (London, 1905), Apr. 15, p Fél. Oeng., pp However, the association is not explicit. It is a gloss in which at the first instance Fintan Maeldub is described to be of the Uí Duach, and afterwards as one of the Eóganachta Caisil. 60 Martyrology of Gorman, ed. W. Stokes, (London, 1895), p M. A. O Brien, Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae (Dublin, 1962), 148a50, 151a27; E. Hogan, Onomasticon Goedelicum Locorum et Tribuum Hiberniae et Scotiae (Dublin, London, 1910), p J. Hardiman, Ancient Irish deeds and writings (Dublin, 1826), p. 17; J. O Donovan, Tribes and customs of Hy Maine, quoted after Hogan, Onomasticon, p

57 the Uí Duach associations appear reliable enough to let us entirely exclude the other. The only fact which can be reconstructed in the matter of the Uí Duach genealogical association is that since the twelfth century they were believed or promoted to be connected to the Eóganachta. It is not possible to tell what their actual association really was. Félire Oengusso and the D Life give 15 April as the feast day of St Ruadán. 63 There is only one annalistic entry on St Ruadán in the Annals of Tigernach, 64 but the time of his activity can also be estimated by the personages mentioned in his Life: it makes him contemporary with St Finnian of Clonard (d. 549), 65 Diarmait mac Cerbaill (reigned or ), 66 Brendan of Clonfert (died 577 or 583), 67 Áed mac Bricc (died 589), 68 Colum Cille (died 597), 69 Baithine (died 598 or 600) 70 and, finally, Colmán Elo (died 611). 71 Thus, one can assume that St Ruadán was believed to have lived in the second half of the sixth century. While adolescent, Ruadán studied under St Finnian in Clonard, and then he went to Múscraige to found his own monastery, but was told by an angel that it was not the place meant for him. 72 In hoc loco tua non erit resurrectio ( your resurrection will not be in this place ), the angel said. So he went ad eum locum ubi nunc est civitas eius (...) et illic suam fundavit civitatem ( to that place where now his church is (...) and there he founded his church ). Curiously, the hagiographer seems to avoid naming the place. The D version contains the name of Lorrha at this point. 73 Lorrha, having been pointed by the angel as the place of Ruadán s resurrection, by godly appointment was to preserve St Ruadán s relics and so to become the centre of St Ruadán s cult, and yet the author of the S Life seems oblivious of its name. 63 Fél. Oeng. 15 April, p. 106; Plummer, Vitae SS Hib., ii, Vita Ruadani, c Ann. Tig : Ruadhan Lothra quieuit secundum alios. 65 A.U ; Chronicle of Ireland A.U , 565.1, 572.4; Chronicle of Ireland respectively. J. F. Byrne, Irish kins and high-kings (Dublin, 1973), p A.U , 583.5; Chronicle of Ireland A.U , Chronicle of Ireland A.U ; Chronicle of Ireland A.U ; Chronicle of Ireland A.U ; Chronicle of Ireland VRuadani, c Plumer, Vitae SS Hib., ii, Vita Ruadani, c

58 However, it is difficult to claim that the author of the S version of the Life was unaware of the fact that Lorrha was the main centre of Ruadán s cult. It is worth restating that he did mention Lorrha once, 74 but he did not put any stress on its importance. He seems rather to have assumed that the name of Lorrha as Ruadán s main ecclesiastical site was obvious to everybody who would read the Vita. It is striking that there is no attempt to advertise the position of the church of Lorrha, and there are two ways of explaining it: either the author was not at all involved and interested in the doings of Lorrha, or quite opposite he wrote the Life entirely for internal purposes of the church of Lorrha (like daily reading in a refectory), therefore there was no point in mentioning the name of the church repeatedly. How did it happen that the church of Lorrha, having been omitted in political calculations around 800 so much that the author of the Life did not bother himself to advertise its position more strongly, suddenly appeared to be noticed by, and associated with, the Eóganachta dynasty in the twelfth century? Circa 800 the Eóganachta already had a chosen saint, promoted in their political struggle against the influence of the church of Armagh and the Uí Néill saint Ailbe and his church of Emly. 75 The church of Emly was very important at that time, enjoying the full support of the kings of Munster, and the church of Lorrha may have been overshadowed by it. As the years went by, the authority of the Eóganachta over Munster diminished and the link with the church of Emly weakened. By the mid-tenth century the Eóganachta lost the overkingship of Munster 76 and the strong connection with Emly disappeared from the sources. When in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries the Eóganachta (precisely Eóganachta Caisil) once again contended for the seat of Cashel and overkingship of Munster with the rival dynasty of Dál Cais, 77 the political need of ecclesiastical and spiritual support for the Eóganachta reappeared. And the sudden appearance of the association of St Ruadán and his church with the Eóganachta may be a reflex of those circumstances. 74 In passing, describing the gift of an altar cloth given to Ruadán; see above. 75 The Life of Ailbe is also included in the O Donohue group and is discussed in one of the chapters of my thesis. 76 Byrne, Irish kings and high-kings, p M.-T. Flanagan, High-kings with opposition, in N.H.I., i, p. 899 ff. 53

59 It seems apparent that the association Of Ruadán with the Eóganachta dynasty was a later development, reflected in later Lives (the D version of the Latin Life and the Irish Life) by much stronger indications of Lorrha as the centre of St Ruadán s activity and by depicting Ruadán as mainly a Munster saint. In twelfth-century sources, like The Book of Leinster, 78 marginal glosses in Félire Oengusso 79 or The Book of Rights 80 Ruadán is clearly localised to Munster and associated with the Eóganachta dynasty as he is also in the D version of his Life. The Book of Rights is a tract containing details of the mutual responsibilities of the king of Cashel (regarded as a high-king of Munster) and the sub-kings of Munster. This tract is a witness of the Eóganachta Caisil claims to authority over Munster. The twelfth-century association of St Ruadán with the Eóganachta may have been a result of the saint s suitability to represent the interests and aspirations of the Eóganachta dynasty. This suitability is to be found in the story of the cursing of Tara. 81 It describes Diarmait mac Cerbaill, the Uí Néill king of Tara who is, by the way, the only identifiable secular character mentioned in the VRuadani - as the king of all Ireland, who introduced peace to all its lands. But one of his heralds, Bac Lomm, inspired by the devil, was violating the strongholds of Ireland until he was killed by one of the lords, Áed Guaire. Áed, fearing for his life, ran away to seek refuge with St Ruadán, but the king found him there and took him to Tara to punish him with death. Ruadán went after them and demanded that Áed should be set free, but Diarmait did not wish to listen to the saint. Ruadán took out his bells and sang psalms, and the sons of twelve kings of Tara died that night, so the kings forced Diarmait to negotiate with the saint. And this section of the S Life describes the saint and the king duelling with the weapons of malediction. Diarmait: 78 Ó Riain, Corp. Geneal. SS Hib., Fél. Oeng., Apr. 15, pp Lebor na cert, ed. and trans. M. Dillon (Dublin, 1962), p VRuadani, c

60 I am defending the justice of the state that peace should be in every place, you are defending evil. You shall receive from the Lord the vengeance of blood, for your paruchia will fall first in the whole of Ireland and it will retreat from you. Ruadán: Your kingdom will fall first and none of your line shall rule for ever. Diarmait: Your place will be deserted and swine living there shall destroy it with [their] nostrils. Ruadán: The state of Tara shall be deserted many hundreds of years earlier and without a [single] inhabitant for ever. Diarmait: Your body will have a taint and one of your limbs shall die. Your eye, blinded, will not be seeing light. Ruadán: Likewise your body shall be killed by your enemies and your limbs shall be separated into parts cruelly. Diarmait: The wildest boar will dig under your border stone with its tusk. 82 Ruadán: Your thigh, which was not raised before me, 83 shall not be buried with your corpse, but a man will throw it on a pile of sheep s manure. Diarmait: You are defending violation of the law, I am defending the truth. You are bringing disorder to my kingdom; but God loves you more. Go then, and take your man, and pay his price. The story of the cursing of Tara is preserved also as an Irish text. 84 Richard Sharpe expressed his belief that the original Irish version of this story was transmitted into 82 Aper ferocissimus suo dente tuam piramidem perfodiet. The word piramis/pyramis is rare in medieval Latin and usually applied to the Egyptian pyramids. However, it may also mean sign of a border, border-stone. This simile may describe the violation of the borders of Diarmait s lands and their desolation by wild beasts plundering. One could also assume that the author meant Diarmait s grave per analogiam with the next sentence, where it is spoken of a place of a burial, too. 83 I.e. the king did not get up to welcome the saint and therefore showed him disrespect. 55

61 Latin at a relatively late date, 85 and inserted into the S Life of Ruadán. His reason is that in the chapter of the VRuadani containing this story, the late form of the name Áed Odo is consistently used. The argument seems reasonable, although I would not go so far (nor actually does Sharpe) as to say that the S Life did not contain the story of the cursing of Tara at any earlier point of its redaction; I would rather be inclined to believe that the shorter, less dramatically depicted scene, possibly without the dialogue, was replaced with the Latin translation of the story existing concurrently in Irish. In the Irish versions Áed is slain by Diarmait, who violated the sanctuary at Lorrha when pursuing his victim. Ruadán is not demanding freedom for Áed, but makes his vengeance by assembling other saints, the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, of whom he was one, and solemnly cursing Tara and predicting Diarmait s death. A death-tale, aided, is quite common in secular Irish literature. There are poems preserved on the deaths of the King Conchobar and Queen Medb, and of Cúchulain, and many other characters of Irish mythology. There is also the Aided Diarmata, its earliest versions preserved in fourteenth-century manuscripts, 86 in which the story of Ruadán s cursing of Tara is retold with details very similar to chapter 12 of the Vita Ruadani, together with the description of the clerics chanting the psalms of commination and ringing their bells against the king. 87 Uraicecht na ríar, the eighth-century poem on the grades of the poets, gives the details of a procedure of cursing according to customary Old Irish law, 88 a procedure which used to be concluded with composing a satire against the wrongdoer and reciting it against him. The poetical similes in the dialogue between St Ruadán and King Diarmait may reflect this customary tradition, although not necessarily, or just partially since there 84 S. H. O Grady, Silva Gadelica (2 vols, London, 1892), i, 72-82, ii, 76-88; Byrne, Irish kings and high-kings, pp Sharpe, Medieval Irish saints lives, p Lebor buidhe Lecain (Yellow Book of Lecan) and Lebor Ui Maine (Book of Uí Máine). The text of the Aided Diarmata has been published by S. H. O Grady in Silva Gadelica, vol. i (London, 1892), pp O Grady, Silva Gadelica, p. 77: Ro gabsat na cléirigh iar sin salmu escaine ocus ro bensat a cluco forsin rígh. 88 L.Breatnach (ed.), Uraicecht na ríar (Dublin, 1987), p

62 is a possibility of the existence of influence of another kind: the influence of ecclesiastical literature. Quest In the Life of St Ruadán the word clamor is used to describe the cursing chant of the clerics. Clamor may mean a shout, a battle-cry, a regular liturgical chant, but also a liturgical ceremony of malediction. 89 The abovementioned guarantor-list of the late seventh-century Law of the Innocents, where the name of the abbot of Lorrha appears, contains a sanction clause with a list of psalms to be used in malediction against those who violate the law. 90 Furthermore, to the extant form of the Law of the Innocents a Middle Irish poem has been attached (composed probably in the tenth century), which in its essentials repeats the threat of the malediction psalms to be used against those who were insubordinate. 91 The Fragmentary Annals under the year 677 also provide an example of the use of maledictory psalms (although there is a need to remember that these annals are quite often chronologically unreliable). St Adomnán is depicted as asking king Fínnechta Fledach to talk to him about the recently remitted bóaire, the cattle tribute, but the king refuses, so Adomnán sends such an answer to him: Go to him and tell him: I will sing fifty psalms meanwhile, and there is a psalm in that fifty in which I shall pray to the Lord that neither son nor descendant of yours, nor any man of the same name, shall ever take the kingship of Ireland. 92 Therefore, the practice of malediction by psalms is confirmed to be an early phenomenon and does not undermine the early date for the VRuadani. The elaborate story with Diarmait mac Cerbaill in the centre of interest does not do that either, as King Diarmait from the seventh century onwards featured prominently in Irish 89 L. K. Little, Benedictine maledictions: liturgical cursing in Romanesque France (Ithaca, New York, 1993). 90 M. Ní Dhonnchadha, Guarantor-List of Cáin Adomnáin, 697 in Peritia, 1 (1982), p Cf. D. M. Wiley, The maledictory psalms in Peritia, 15 (2001), pp O. O Neill, A Middle Irish poem on the maledictory psalms in Journal of Celtic Studies, 3 (1981-2), pp Fragmentary annals, p

63 literature. 93 Although it is possible as Sharpe suggested 94 that the story of the cursing of Tara in its present shape was inserted into the VRuadani at a later stage of redaction, it does not mean that the story was not there earlier, only in a different, simpler and shorter form, like the other chapters of the Life. The S Life of St Ruadán, although probably corrupted and containing a later insertion, still bears the marks of the early date of composition. Its primitive form gives a strong impression that it is the earliest version of all the extant Lives of Ruadán. The use of distinctively early vocabulary (cortex, boccetum) again strengthens this impression. The fact that St Ruadán is not depicted as a specifically Munster saint, associated with Eóganachta, clearly indicates that the Life had been composed before the tradition of Ruadán s strong association with the Eóganachta became widespread and promoted. Apart from the probably inserted story of the cursing of Tara, there is no element in the Life which could seriously undermine the hypothesis of the early date of its composition. The story of the cursing of Tara by St Ruadán in the sixth century, although of a clearly legendary character, has of course some historical justification as it records the official abandonment of the pagan sacral kingship. But for the author of the Life of Ruadán it was just a reflex of distant changes which took place centuries ago, without any precise historical reliability. The more important issue which can be noticed when investigating the changes in the Life of St Ruadán is the shifting of his political and geographical associations in the course of the evolution of the text. The story of the cursing of Tara was a famous and widespread motif during the Middle Ages in Ireland and there are plenty of aspects of it to investigate, plenty of interpretations, remakes and versions of the story. And quite probably all of them originated in the hagiographical tradition of the earliest version of the Life of Ruadán, which makes the issue of dating even more crucial. Hopefully, the thesis in progress will satisfy this demand. 93 E. Bhreathnach, The kingship and landscape of Tara (Dublin, 2005), pp Sharpe, Medieval Irish saints lives, p

64 Bibliography: ANDERSON, A.O., ANDERSON, M. O. (ed. and trans.), Adomnán s Life of Columba (Edinburgh, 1961). BARNARD, T., Ó CRÓINÍN, D., SIMMS, K. (eds), A miracle of learning. Studies in manuscripts and Irish learning. Essays in honour of W. O Sullivan (Cambridge, 1998). BHREATHNACH, E., The kingship and landscape of Tara (Dublin, 2005). BINCHY, D., St Patrick and his biographers: ancient and modern in Studia Hibernica, 2 (1962), pp BREATNACH, L. (ed.), Uraicecht na ríar (Dublin, 1987). BYRNE, J. F., Derrynavlan: the historical context in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 110 (1980), pp BYRNE, J. F., Irish kins and high-kings (Dublin, 1973). CAREY, J., A review of Richard Sharpe s Medieval Irish saints lives in Speculum, 68 (1993), pp CAREY, J., HERBERT, M., Ó RIAIN, P. (eds), Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars (Dublin, 2001). CHARLES-EDWARDS, T. (ed.), The Chronicle of Ireland (2 vols, Liverpool, 2005). DILLON, M. (ed. and trans.), Lebor na cert (Dublin, 1962). FLANAGAN, M.-T., High-kings with opposition, in A new history of Ireland, i, Prehistoric and early Ireland, ed. D. Ó Cróinín (Oxford, 2005), pp HARDIMAN, J., Ancient Irish deeds and writings (Dublin, 1826). HARVEY, A. J. R., POWER, J. et al. (eds), The non-classical lexicon of Celtic latinity (Turnhout, 2006). HEIST, W. W. (ed.), Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae e Codice olim Salmanticensi nunc Bruxellensi. Subsidia Hagiographica, 25 (Brussels, 1965). HERBERT, M., The Vita Columbae and Irish hagiography: a study of Vita Cainnechi in Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, ed. J. Carey, M. Herbert, P. Ó Riain (Dublin, 2001), pp HOGAN, E., Onomasticon Goedelicum Locorum et Tribuum Hiberniae et Scotiae (Dublin, London, 1910). HUGHES, K., Early Christian Ireland: introduction to the sources (London, 1972). KENEY, J. F., The sources for the early history of Ireland: ecclesiastical (New York, 1929). LITTLE, L. K., Benedictine maledictions: liturgical cursing in Romanesque France (Ithaca, New York, 1993). MAC AIRT, S., MAC NIOCAILL, G. (ed. and trans.), The Annals of Ulster (to A.D. 1131) (A.U. 2 ) (Dublin 1983). NÍ DHONNCHADHA, M., Guarantor-List of Cáin Adomnáin, 697 in Peritia, 1 (1982), pp O BRIEN, M. A., Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae (Dublin, 1962). Ó CRÓINÍN, D. (ed.), A new history of Ireland (N.H.I.), vol. i, Prehistoric and early Ireland (Oxford, 2005). O GRADY, S. H., Silva Gadelica (2 vols, London, 1892). O NEILL, O., A Middle Irish poem on the maledictory psalms in Journal of Celtic Studies, 3 (1981-2), pp

65 Ó RIAIN, P., Codex Salmanticensis: a provenance inter Anglos or inter Hibernos? in A miracle of learning. Studies in manuscripts and Irish learning. Essays in honour of W. O Sullivan, ed. T. Barnard, D. Ó Cróinín, and K. Simms (Cambridge, 1998), pp Ó RIAIN, P., Corpus Geneaogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae (Dublin, 1985). PLUMMER, C., Bethada Náem nérenn (2 vols, Oxford, 1922). PLUMMER, C., A tentative catalogue of Irish hagiography in Miscellanea Hagiographica Hibernica, ed. idem (Brussels, 1925), pp PLUMMER, C., Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (2 vols, Oxford, 1910). RADNER, J. N. (ed. and trans.), Fragmentary annals of Ireland (Dublin 1978). SHARPE, R. (trans.), Life of St Columba (London, 1995). SHARPE, R. Medieval Irish saints lives: an introduction to Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (Oxford, 1991). SMYTH, A. P., A review of Richard Sharpe s Medieval Irish saints lives in English Historical Review, 107 (1992), pp SPERBER, I., Late, and not of special distinction?: The misunderstood Life of St Fintán of Clonenagh in Ossory, Laois and Leinster, 1 (2004), pp STOKES, W. (ed. and trans.), Félire Oengusso Céli Dé (London, 1905). STOKES, W. (ed. and trans.), Martyrology of Gorman (London, 1895). TSCHEN-EMMONS, J., The limits of Late Antiquity: St. Áed mac Bricc and Ireland in Late Antiquity (PhD thesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003). WILEY, M., The maledictory psalms in Peritia, 15 (2001), pp

66 THE LADIES OF ELY Kimberley Steele, Aberystwyth University, Wales Quest The sisters of Ely were among the most venerated saints of Anglo-Saxon England, regularly rivalling even the Canterbury cults in the number and value of donations received from supplicants 1, and Æthelthryth, the leading figure in this esteemed family, was the most celebrated native woman of the pre-conquest era, with a cult that continued, seemingly uninterrupted, from the time of her death in 697 until the dissolution of the monasteries. During the centuries in which these cults flourished, the characters of the saints at their centre were to evolve from pious virginal ladies to strident, oftentimes violent, protectors of Ely lands and privileges, adapting to the needs of the community that venerated them. The earliest surviving source for the events of Æthelthryth s life, and that of her sister, Seaxburh, is Bede s Ecclesiastical History, in which the author claims that his knowledge is based on the verbal accounts provided by Bishop Wilfrid, friend and confidant of the saint, and Cynifrid, who had acted as surgeon for Æthelthryth and been present, together with Wilfrid, at her first translation. It is immediately apparent from the text that the author greatly admired his subject, speaking with much more ardour than that which is devoted to other comparable figures, such as St. Hild of Whitby. 2 The reason Bede gives for his fervent admiration of Æthelthryth is that even in our own time a saint of such calibre lived, a woman who piously preserved her virginity despite tremendous pressure to consummate her marriages, and who renounced the wealth and comfort of royal position in order to found a house of monks and nuns. She is likened to such women as Agatha and Cecilia, martyrs of the early church who had died in defence of their virginity, thus responding to a concern common during the medieval period. In the age of the Church Fathers saints were most often distinguished by the sacrifice of their lives for their faith; by the Anglo- 1 For a discussion of the longevity of the cult of St. Æthelthryth see S. Ridyard, The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: a Study of West Saxon and East Anglia Cults (Cambridge, 1988). 2 C. Fell, Saint ÆthelÞryð: a Historical Dichotomy Revisited in Nottingham Medieval Studies, 38 (1994), pp

67 Saxon period, however, paganism was less widespread, and the nationalisation of Christianity rendered such martyrdoms infrequent. Was sainthood therefore to be attainable only to those who perished during such events as the Viking invasions, or were there other paths to sanctification? Æthelthryth represented to her contemporaries and near-contemporaries the new and increasingly common breed of saint, distinguished by asceticism and piety, but not necessarily martyrdom. 3 Of equal, if not greater importance and yet not explicitly referred to by Bede was the role Æthelthryth played in the debate on divorce. The advent of monasticism in medieval Christendom led to increased discussion among churchmen and lawmakers alike regarding the grounds upon which a lawful marriage could be dissolved. The debate surrounding divorce dates back to the original definition of Christian marriage by St. Paul, and throughout the ages, texts were produced stipulating the terms under which marriages could be dissolved. These texts varied between localities, and yet there appears to be a theme of divorce being permitted only in the case of consanguinity or adultery, often female adultery in particular. 4 As monasticism began to flourish, however, it became necessary to re-evaluate accepted grounds for divorce in light of those who wished to divorce in order for one or both parties to enter a monastery. The church had long been an attractive prospect for the widowed, presenting an opportunity for retirement without the necessity of re-marriage, but married men and women were also drawn to the church, and sought legitimisation of divorce for this purpose. Bede s enthusiastic promotion of the cult of Æthelthryth should be viewed in the light of this debate; the saint was, regardless of any claims concerning her virginity, a divorcée. Æthelthryth, as a reigning queen who embarked on the monastic life, represented a polemical opportunity too good to miss. 5 Æthelthryth was a royal lady who submitted to the dynastic need for marriage, demonstrating her obedience, but remained virginal as a statement of piety and devotion; when she sought a divorce 3 There is an early tradition of ascetic desert saints in the east, for example St. Simeon of Syria, but this was late arriving in the West. 4 S. Hollis, Anglo-Saxon Women and the Church: Sharing a Common Fate (Woodbridge, 1992), pp See also C. N. L. Brooke, The Medieval Idea of Marriage (Oxford, 1989). 5 Hollis, Anglo-Saxon Women, p

68 after twelve years of marriage to her second husband, she did so with the blessing, and indeed the assistance, of no less a figure than St. Wilfrid. This is a patent statement in support of divorce in order to allow entry into a monastery, though within prescribed parameters; the divorce is sought with the support of a bishop, and occurs only with the consent, however reluctant, of her husband, Ecgfrith. Bede s motives for venerating Æthelthryth are wide-ranging, incorporating her significance as a symbol of purity and asceticism, and of permissible divorce, as well as her role as foundress of the double monastery on the Isle of Ely. The members of Æthelthryth s family who were to form an integral part of the cults of Ely during later centuries were not portrayed with such importance in the Ecclesiastical History, however, and would only rise to prominence during later centuries. Seaxburh is discussed in the text in terms of her political position, but no claims are made for her sanctity, while her daughter, Eormenhild, is praised for her piety and devotion but Bede draws no connections between Eormenhild and the institution of Ely or her esteemed aunt. The tradition of Æthelthryth was thus started by Bede, and it remained unchanged for more than two hundred years; the Old English translation of his Ecclesiastical History almost exactly replicated the original Latin in its representation of the ladies of Ely and there appear to have been no hagiographical works written in relation to them until after the Benedictine Reform movement, when the abbey was re-founded by St. Æthelwold. St. Æthelwold, with permission from King Edgar, purchased the lands of Ely and refounded the abbey in the form of a single house of Benedictine monks, purportedly offering the resident clerics the choice between banishment or conversion. The monastery, consecrated by St. Dunstan in 970, became the benefactor of Æthelwold s deliberate policy of enrichment, as he provided adequate territorial endowment to allow the monastery liberty, backed by King Edgar s 970 charter granting a number of privileges to the abbey, which has become known as the Liberty of Ely. 6 The Liberty 6 For a full discussion of this charter see R. B. Pugh et al. (eds.), A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely (Woodbridge, 2006, 2 nd ed.), vol. 4, City of Ely; Ely, N. and S. Witchford and 63

69 granted the monastery extensive privileges and exemptions, ranging from tax-relief and the right to the fourth penny from Cambridge, to court-holding privileges. These were benefits that could only be bestowed by the Crown, and it is asserted in the text of The Liberty that Edgar was merely confirming existing benefits as provided for the monastery by its foundress. While the eighth century cult of Æthelthryth largely played down her status as a monarch, emphasising her desire to leave the secular world behind her and become like an early martyr, by the tenth century it was Æthelthryth as Queen that justified the abbey s position of considerable power. She remained a prominent figure in the choir of virgins as depicted in Æthelwold s Benedictional, but in addition she began to reclaim her royal status. Image taken from Andrew Prescott, The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold: A Masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon Art. A Facsimile. The British Library, It was during this period that Æthelthryth s sister saints began to attain greater prominence, most notably through the translation of 974, when Æthelwold oversaw the translation of the relics of Æthelthryth, along with her sister, Seaxburh, and niece, Eormenhild, both of whom were said to have succeeded her as abbess. Further, Bryhtnoth, abbot of Ely, brought the relics of Wihtburg, claimed to be a further sister of Æthelthryth, to Ely under dubious circumstances. As was typical, the physical translations of this family of saints was also accompanied by a literary translation, as Wisbech Hundreds, pp 4-8 and , which convincingly asserts that the Old English translation of the charter was done by Ælfric. 64