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‘An Airier Aristocracy’: The Saints at War (The Prothero Lecture)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Christopher Holdsworth
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Extract

I want to plunge into my subject by adopting that practice well known to our medieval predecessors, namely to use an exemplum, because at once it transports us into the heart of the problem to be addressed. The event is recounted by Orderic Vitalis in Book Six of his Ecclesiastical History, and describes the practice of a Norman priest called Gerold who served in the household of the great earl of Chester Hugh of Avranches (1071–1101). Gerold was, apparently, a devoted priest who regularly said the offices for the day and offered Mass, but beyond this he wanted die men of the earl's household to live a better life. That desire he discharged by telling them about how some of their forebears had lived:

To great lords, simple knights, and noble boys alike he gave salutary counsel and he made a great collection of tales of the combats of holy knights, drawn from the Old Testament and more recent records of Christian achievements, for them to imitate. He told them vivid stories of the conflicts of Demetrius and George, of Theodore and Sebastian, of the Theban Legion and Maurice its leader, and of Eustace, supreme commander of the army and his companions, who won die crown of martyrdom in heaven. He also told diem of the holy champion, William, who after long service in war renounced die world and fought gloriously for die Lord under die monastic rule. And many profited from his exhortations, for he brought them from the wide ocean of the world to die safe haven of life under the Rule.

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Research Article
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Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 6 , December 1996 , pp. 103 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1996

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References

1 Lowell, Robert, Notebooks (1970), 111Google Scholar. I must here acknowledge the many helpful points made in the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, some of which have been adopted in this printed version. In the following notes when citing Latin sources I have usually cited an English translation in brackets.

2 The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, VI.2, ed. Chibnall, Marjorie (6 vols., Oxford, 1969–1980)Google Scholar [hereafter Orderic, HE], III, 216–17.

3 Ibid., VI.4 (III, 227).

4 I follow here Farmer, David Hugh, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford, 1978)Google Scholar, and Bibliotheca Sanctorum (12 vols., plus indices, Rome, 1961–1970)Google Scholar.

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6 Elliott, Alison Goddard, Roads to Paradise: Reading the Lives of the Early Saints (Hanover and London, 1987) [hereafter Elliott, Roads], 157 n. 115Google Scholar; Ortenberg, Veronica, The English Church and the Continent in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (Oxford, 1992) [hereafter Ortenberg, English Church] 211Google Scholar, refers to three tympana in England showing the fight with the dragon, citing Keyser, Charles E., A List of Norman Tympana and Lintels (1927)Google Scholar. It is likely all postdate 1120; cf. Zarnecki, George, Later English Romanesque Sculpture (1953), 12, 13, 14, 36, 55Google Scholar. There is need for further discussion of early images of George in England and Normandy.

7 See the discussion of Aelfric below at n. 12.

8 Anglo-Saxon Litanies of the Saints, ed. Lapidge, Michael, Henry Bradshaw Society [hereafter HBS], CVI (1991)Google Scholar, passim for the rest of this paragraph.

9 English Kalendars before A.D. 1100, ed. Wormald, Francis, HBS, LXXII (1934Google Scholar, repr. 1988), passim. One may note also that Demetrius has a different day in each case: 19 Sept. (West Country, late XIc), 8 October (Worcester, later XIc, a XIIc addition), 10 November (Glastonbury, c. 970); below I refer to saints by initials only: The Durham Collector, ed. Correa, Alicia, HBS, CVII (1992), 174(8), 176(G), 196(T)Google Scholar; The Missal of the Mew Minster, Winchester, ed. Turner, D.H., HBS, XCIII (1962), 62(S), 87(G), 166(M), 179(E), 180(T)Google Scholar, includes the Durham collects, adding others with Epistles and Gospels (these are not given for E and T); The Winchcombe Sacramentary, ed. Davril, Anselme, HBS, CIX (1995), 143(S), 154–5(G), 189–90(M), 199(T)Google Scholar, has the same prayers as New Minster; The Leqfiic Missal, ed. Warren, F.E. (Oxford, 1883), 140 (G), 161 (M), 166 (T)Google Scholar; The Portiforium of Saint Wulfstan, ed. Hughes, Anselm, HBS, LXXXTX and XC (1958–1960), 118 (S), 122 (G), 144(M), 148(E and T)Google Scholar, has one collect for each like those at New Minster, but adds two more for E which are distinctive. I have not consulted Benedictionals.

10 Lapidge, Michael, ‘The Saintly life in Anglo-Saxon England’, in The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, ed. Godden, Malcolm and Lapidge, Michael (Cambridge, 1991), 250–2Google Scholar. Martyrologium Hwonimi in Acta Sanctorum, Nov. II, i, 11(S), 46(G), 124(M), 141(T); Bede, Martyrology, Migne, Patrobgia Latina, 94, cols. 816–17 (S), 886–7 (G), 1050–1(M), 1009–10 (T). I have not been able to use Edition pratique des martryloges de Bède, de l'Anonyme lyonnais et Floras, ed. Dubois, J. and Renaud, G. (Paris, 1976)Google Scholar.

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13 Erdmann, Carl, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade, transl. Baldwin, Marshall W. and Goffart, Walter (Princeton, NJ., 1977) [hereafter Erdmann, Origin], 275–7Google Scholar, where Erdmann's cautious words, first published in 1935, are modified by Baldwin's notes. Keen, Maurice, Chvoalry (New Haven and London, 1984), 47Google Scholar, follows Erdmann without modification Ortenberg, English Church, 69–70 (G), 180(M), 210–11 (S), is much more nuanced, but does not mention Cardini, D or E. Franco, Alle radwe delta cavaUeria medievale (Florence, 1981) [hereafter Cardini, Cavalleria] 227–41Google Scholar, a broad-ranging discussion to which Richard Barber kindly directed me.

14 Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Litanies, and Wormald, Kalendars, passim: Aelfric, Lives, I.241ff, II. 87ff.

15 Kantorowicz, Ernst H., Laudes Regiae: A Study in Liturgical Acclamations and Mediaeval Ruler Worship (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1958), 167Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., 105: ‘Grant O Christ to the army of the Romans and Franks life and victory. Saint Theodore help them’. Cf. McCormick, Michael, ‘The Liturgy of War in the Early Middle Ages: Crisis, Liturgies, and the Carolingian Monarchy’, Viator, XV (1984), 1–23, espec. 17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.Wood, Ian, The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751 (1994), 183Google Scholar. Wallace-Hadrill, M., The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983), 78CrossRefGoogle Scholar, the oldest surviving MS of a saint's life is for Maurice. Gregory of Tours, Decem Libn Histonarum [hereafter HF], X.31 (trans. Thorpe, Lewis, Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks (Harmondsworth, 1974), 601–2)Google Scholar, for his discovery of Maurice's relics in St Martin's church and transfer of them to the cathedral. For later embroderies on these events see Farmer, Sharon, Communities of Saint Martin. Legend and Ritual in Medieval Tours (Ithaca and London, 1991) [hereafter Fanner, Communities], 54–5, 232–5, 287Google Scholar.

18 Lane-Fox, Robin, Pagans and Christians (Harmondsworth, 1986) [hereafter Lane-Fox, Pagans], 82Google Scholar.

19 Aelfric provides an accessible source for the legends, see n. 12 above.

20 Contamine, Philippe, War in the Middle Ages, trans. Jones, Michael (Oxford, 1984) [hereafter Contamine, War], 297Google Scholar, for S as patron saint of archers.

21 Elliott, , Roads, 144–67Google Scholar, brings together much evidence about early saints, especially martyrs, and animals.

22 Lives of Saints, II, 219.

23 Orderic, HE, III, xiv (for date), 218–27 (Orderic's summary of the Vita).

24 Ibid., 218–19; English Benedictine Kalendars after A.D. 1100, ed. Wormald, Francis, HBS., LXXVII, LXXXI (1939, 1946)Google Scholar, have no entries for William.

25 Orderic, HE, III, 218: ‘Vulgo canitur a ioculatoribus de illo cantilena….’

26 For the vernacular texts see Bezzola, R. R., Les origines et k formation de la literature courtoise en Occident (5 vols., Paris, 1958–1960), II.494 n.1Google Scholar.

27 Lane-Fox, , Pagans, 304, 319, 553Google Scholar, but 588 under Constantine ‘the random sample of the soldiery remained overwhelmingly pagan’.

28 Smith, Louis J., The Early Fathers on War and Military Service (Wilmington, Delaware, 1983)Google Scholar [hereafter Swift, Early Fathers], is a useful guide. I am grateful to Ian Markham for having drawn my attention to it.

29 Medieval Handbooks of Penance, trans. McNeill, John T. and Gamer, Helena M. (Records of Western Civilisation Series, New York, orig. edn, 1938Google Scholar; repr. 1990), Pentitential of Archbishop Theodore, cap.IV,6 (187): I,9 (185), whereas a priest only has three weeks' fast, VIII,4 (191). Other texts (225, 317) also have the forty-day penance. Cf. Frantzen, A. J., The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England (New Brunswick, NJ., 1983), 76, 111–12Google Scholar. There is no mention of killing in battle in the Irish texts, which are severe on killing in general: The Irish Penitentials, ed. Bieler, Ludwig, Scriptores Latini Hibemiae, V (Dublin 1975)Google Scholar. Later there are signs of a more severe view: Contamine, , War, 268Google Scholar, his last example follows the battle of Hastings.

30 Swift, , Early Fathers, 157Google Scholar; Contamine, , War, 269Google Scholar; Prinz, F., ‘King, Clergy and War at the Time of the Carolingians’, in Saints, Scholars and Heroes. Studies in Honour of C.W. Jones, ed. King, M.H. and Stevens, W.M. (Collegeville, 1978), 302–3Google Scholar; Powell, Timothy E., ‘The “Three Orders” of Society in Anglo-Saxon England’, Anglo-Saxon England, XXIII (1994), 103–32, espec. 124–5 on PrinzGoogle Scholar.

31 Swift, , Early Fathers, 55Google Scholar, citing Origen, Contra Celsum, 8.73, though this relates to wartime.

33 Lane-Fox, Pagans, 16–17.

33 Swift, , Early Fathers, 92fGoogle Scholar, noting how soldiers who had killed were allowed back into the church after three years and then shorter periods. Lane-Fox, , Pagans, 556–60, 597, 666Google Scholar, shows a less rigorist view on sin emerging in the third century, and becoming predominant after Constantine's conversion.

34 Eusebius, , The History of the Church [hereafter Eusebius, History], 5.1, 5.2 (trans. Williamson, G.A., rev. edn, Andrew Louth (Harmondsworth, 1989), 139, 149)Google Scholar.

35 Eusebius, History, 6.40, and 10.4 (212, 310–11).

36 Cf. Dodds, E.R., The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1951), 105–6Google Scholar.

37 Eusebius, History, 1.2, 10.4 (6, 309).

38 Ibid., 9.9 (293).

39 Ibid., 9.10, 10.9 (297, 332).

40 Swift, , Early Fathers, 85Google Scholar (citing Encomium, 2.3); other extracts, 84–7.

41 Eusebius, History, 6.42, 7.15, 5.5 (213, 232, 151).

42 Ibid., 8.1 (257).

43 Ibid., 7.15 (232–3).

44 De Fide, II.xvi.141–2, a prayer for Gratian fighting the Goths, cited by Cross, J.E., ‘The Ethic of War in Old English’, in England before the Conquest. Studies in Primary Sources Presented to Dorothy Whitehck, ed. Clemoes, Peter and Hughes, Kathleen (Cambridge, 1971), 269–82, at 270Google Scholar, a fine, wide-ranging article.

45 Jordanes: The Gothic History, cap. XXXVI (trans. Mierow, Charles C., Cambridge and New York, 1915Google Scholar; repr. 1966, 105).

46 Ibid., XXVI (90). One may note that Gregory, HF, I.41 (92) attributed Valens's defeat and death to his earlier having forced monks to do military service, something later forbidden by the church: see n. 30 above.

47 HF, II.40, II.37 (156, 154) and many others. Cf. Goffart, Walter, The Narrators of Barbarian History (Princeton, 1988) [hereafter Goffart, Narrators], 151Google Scholar, God's vengeance is ‘nothing less than God's own feud in support of his servants’.

48 HF, II.7 (118).

49 Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People [hereafter Bede, HE], I.14, ed. Colgrave, Bertram and Mynors, R.A.B. (Oxford, 1969), 48–9Google Scholar. Bede's anti-British bias has often been noticed, most recently Stancliffe, Clare, ‘Oswald, “Most Holy and Most Victorious King of the Northumbrians”’, in Oswald Northumbrian King to European Saint, ed. Stancliffe, Claire and Cambridge, Eric (Stamford, 1995), 37, 76Google Scholar.

50 Bede, HE, I.16 (54–5).

51 Narrators, 142.

52 Ibid., 151.

53 Lane-Fox, , Pagans, 229Google Scholar.

54 Historia Langobardorum, V.6, ed. Bethmann, L. and Waitz, G., Monumenta Germaniae Historka, Scriptmes rerum Langobardorum (Hanover, 1878), 146–7Google Scholar.

55 HE, IV.xxvi (426–9). This reads like a reflection of Augustine's attack on aggressive war.

56 Adomnan, , Life of Columba, I.18Google Scholar (Adomnan of Iona Life of St Columba, trans. Sharpe, Richard (Harmondsworth, 1995), 119)Google Scholar.

57 E.g. Gregory, HF, III.6, IV.51 (166–7, 247–8).

58 McCormick, Michael, ‘The Liturgy of War in the Early Middle Ages: Crisis, Liturgies, and the Carolingian Monarchy’, Viator, XV (1984), 1–23, at 18CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cardini, , Cavallma, 222–6Google Scholar. One may note that Origen, often considered a pacifist, thought that if the Romans put their mind to praying to God they could conquer more enemies than Moses had: his pacifism did not exclude getting God to do the dirty work; Lane-Fox, , Pagans, 626Google Scholar.

59 E.g. I Sam vii. 6–11, Jonah iii.1f; Lane-Fox, , Pagans and Christians, 120Google Scholar, for relics and statues in battle.

60 Life of Columba, I.i (110).

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62 The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, cap. XIX, ed. and trans. Colgrave, Bertram (Cambridge, 1927), 41–3Google Scholar.

63 Bede, HE, II.2 (140–3). Bede here was in a difficulty since the Britons were Christians, but got round that by linking their fate with Augustine's prophecy that because they had refused to work with him they would die.

64 HF, III.29 (186–7).

65 GM, C.12 (32–4).

66 HF, VII.29 (411).

67 Ibid., II.7 (117).

68 Ibid., II.5 (115–16).

69 Gregory of Tours, Liberde passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris, 50 (trans. Van Dam, Raymond, Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton 1993) [hereafter Van Dam, Saints], 194)Google Scholar.

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71 McCormick, Michael, Eternal Victory. Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West (Cambridge and Paris, 1986), 170–1Google Scholar, appearances of George and Theodore in the tenth century.

72 De cura pro mortuis gerenda, XVI (19), cited Erdmann, , Origin, 7 n. 9Google Scholar. Augustine was certain about his informants: ‘non incertis rumoribus, sed testibus certis’.

73 Life of Columba, I.n (110–11).

74 Hist. Lang., 121–2.

75 Farmer, , Communities, 30Google Scholar, for cappa of Martin; Lane-Fox, , Pagans, 121Google Scholar, the pagans in Rome trying in 394 to protect the city with images of Zeus and his golden thunderbolts known because Augustine mocked at it in the City of God: 133–4, other examples of statues placed to defend territory, in the last case the Christian emperor, Theodosius II, ordered their removal. When this was done three tribes invaded ‘one for each statue’.

76 HF, VII.31, VII.38 (413–14, 423).

77 The Making of Europe. Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950–1350 (Harmondsworth, 1993), 79Google Scholar.

78 GM, c. 71 (94–5); other examples GM, c. 60, 65, 78(84–5, 89–90, 101f). HF has many more.

79 Cf. Wallace-Hadrill's, suggestion, Frankish Church, 399Google Scholar, that Bede could have painted English history as dark as Gregory did that of Francia, if he had wished to.

80 Gregory, HF, IV.49 (246).

81 Cf. The Peace of God. Social Violence and Religious Response in France around the Year 1000, ed. Head, Thomas and Landes, Richard (Ithaca and London, 1992)Google Scholar.

82 The Life of Radegund by Baudonivia, 10 (Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ed. and trans. McNamara, Jo Ann, Halborg, John E. with Whatley, E. Gordon (Durham N.C., and London, 1992) [hereafter Sainted Women], 93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, cf. 9, female peacemakers could also be powerful friends and dangerous enemies); Van Dam, , Saints, 34Google Scholar, on Radegund and peace.

83 Sainted Women, 12–14, and 162 (Jonas of Bobbio on Burgondofara [603–45] in his Vita S. Cokmbani, II. 11), 229 (anon., Vita Sanctae Gertrudis [628–58], miracle 2). Both of these are late seventh-century texts.

84 The Life of Genovefa, a Virgin of Paris in Gaul, 10–11 (Sainted Women, 23–4, and 4, for the comment)

85 Guenée, Bernard;, Histoire et Culture historique dans l'Occident médiéval (Paris, 1980), 250Google Scholar, for Bede and Gregory. For Paul see Goffart, , Narrators, 329Google Scholar.

86 Benedictine Maledictions. Liturgical Cursing in Romanesque France (Ithaca an d London, 1993)Google Scholar.

87 GM, c. 78 (101). Little does not mention this but refers, 84, to another case involving the tomb of St Mitrias; Gregory, Gloria Confessorum, c. 70 (Gregory of Tours. Glory of the Confessors, trans Van Dam, R. (Liverpool, 1988), 73–4)Google Scholar. For a pagan equivalent in which a statue of Ares, the war god, was chained to protect a town against local bandits see Lane-Fox, , Pagans, 133–4Google Scholar.

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89 Rollason, David, Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1989), 93Google Scholar, draws attention to a miracle in the Anonymous life occurring while Cuthbert was ‘in camp with the army, in the face of the enemy’ suggesting that before his conversion he was a typical noble. For the posthumous saint defending his people see Aird, W., ‘St Cuthbert, the Scots and the Normans’, in Anglo-Norman Studies, XVI (1994), 1–20, at 17Google Scholar.

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91 There is much else which could have been mentioned: e.g. the inscription of Christian talismans on armour, rituals to bless armour and those who wielded it.

92 For Maurice see Ortenberg, , English Church, 46–9Google Scholar: Mayr-Harting, Henry, ‘The church of Magdeburg: Its Trade and its Town in the Tenth and Early Eleventh Centuries’, in Church and City 1000–1500. Essays in Honour of Christopher Brooke, ed. Abulafia, David, Franklin, Michael and Rubin, Miri (Cambridge, 1992), 129–34Google Scholar. For national patron saints see Saints and their Cults. Studies in Religious Sociology, Folklore and History, ed. Wilson, Stephen (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar, espec. Spiegel, Gabrielle M., ‘The Cult of St Denis and Capetian Kingship’, 141–68Google Scholar.

93 Tours: Gregory HF, II.37 (151–2); Brioude: Gregory, , Vita Juliani, 13 (171– 2)Google Scholar; Durham: see Aird ‘St Cuthbert’, n. 89 above. For similar sacred precincts in early Irish ecclesiastical legislation and later Welsh lives: Hughes, Kathleen, Early Christian Ireland: Introduction to the Sources (1972), 80–2Google Scholar; Davies, Wendy, ‘Property Rights and Property Claims in Welsh “Vitae” of the Eleventh Century’, in Hagiographie, Cultures et Sociétés IVe-XIIe siècles (Etudes Augustiniennes (Paris, 1981)), 515–33Google Scholar. I am indebted to Dr Julia Crick and Professor Davies for drawing these to my attention.

94 See n. 71 above.

95 One may refer to the emergence of military fraternities dedicated to George, or of Sebastian as patron of archers, for example.