Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:29:16.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Translating St Alban: Romano-British, Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon Cults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2017

M. D. Laynesmith
M. D. Laynesmith*
Affiliation:
University of Reading
*
*Chaplaincy Centre, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AH. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article treats the early medieval cult of St Alban of Verulamium. It explores how, and how far, the cult extended in Britain, France and Germany. As well as crossing geographical boundaries, Alban's relics were also shared among different cultures: British, Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian. The article argues that this resulted in differing appreciations, interpretations and applications of Alban's cult, and that the Gallic contribution to the cult's survival was particularly important.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 53: TRANSLATING CHRISTIANITY , June 2017 , pp. 51 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article is based on ongoing doctoral research into ‘The Cult of St Alban of Verulamium, c.400–c.750’ (Archbishop's Examination in Theology, Lambeth Palace). A gazetteer of medieval Alban churches is online at: <https://www.academia.edu/24430468/A_Provisional_Gazetteer_of_Alban_Churches_in_Medieval_North-western_Europe>, accessed 15 April 2016.

References

1 Brown, Peter’s The Cult of Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago, IL, 1971)Google Scholar remains seminal. On the phenomenon of translation, see Crook, John, ‘The Enshrinement of Local Saints in Francia and England’, in Thacker, Alan and Sharpe, Richard, eds, Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West (Oxford, 2002), 189–224Google Scholar.

2 Wood, Ian N., ‘Levison and St Alban’, in Becher, Matthias and Hen, Yitzhak, eds, Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). Ein jüdisches Forscherleben zwischen wissenschaftlicher Anerkennung und politischem Exil (Siegburg, 2010), 171–85Google Scholar, at 178–9. On the classical background of this name, see Rivet, Albert L. F. and Smith, Colin, The Place-Names of Roman Britain (London, 1979), 39, 247–8Google Scholar. ‘Alba’ was the Old Irish name for Britain. On ‘Albion’ during the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods, see Hingst, Amanda Jane, The Written World: Past and Place in the Work of Orderic Vitalis (Notre Dame IN, 2009), 51–69Google Scholar. On Albion in Æthelred's charters, see Hayward, Paul Antony, ‘The Cult of St Alban, Anglorum Protomartyr, in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England’, in Leemans, Johan, ed., More than a Memory: The Discourse of Martyrdom and the Construction of Christian Identity in the History of Christianity (Leuven, 2005), 169–99Google Scholar, at 183.

3 Thomas, Charles, Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500 (London, 1981), 46–50Google Scholar. The Severan date no longer holds: Sharpe, Richard, ‘The Late Antique Passion of St Alban’, in Henig, Martin and Lindley, Phillip, eds, Alban and St Albans: Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art and Archaeology (Leeds, 2001), 30–7Google Scholar.

4 For the passio text, see Meyer, Wilhelm, ‘Die Legende des h. Albanus des Protomartyr Angliae in Texten vor Beda’, Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philogisch-historische Klasse n.s. 8 (1904), 36–47Google Scholar. The text is erroneously labelled ‘Excerpt’, reflecting Meyer's (mis)interpretation: see Sharpe, ‘Late Antique Passion’, 32–4.

5 Prosper of Aquitaine, Epitoma chronicon, s.a. 429 (in Chronica Minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII, MGH AA 9, 341–499, at 472).

6 Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle, ‘The Origins of St Albans Abbey: Romano-British Cemetery and Anglo-Saxon Monastery’, in Henig and Lindley, eds, Alban and St Albans, 45–77, at 62. I am not persuaded by Ian Wood's claim that Germanus founded the cult: ‘Germanus, Alban and Auxerre’, Bulletin du Centre d’Études Médievales d'Auxerre 13 (2009), 123–9.

7 Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle, ‘Origins’, 62.

8 Victricius of Rouen, De laude sanctorum 12 (CChr.SL 64, 69–93, at 92; my translation).

9 Vita Germani episcopi Autissiodorensis autore Constantio 16, 18 (in Passiones Vitaeque Sanctorum aevi Merovingici, MGH SRM 7, 225–83, at 262, 265); Gildas, De excidio Britonum 1 (Winterbottom, Michael, ed., Gildas: The Ruin of Britain and Other Works [London, 1978], 19Google Scholar, 92); Venantius Fortunatus, De virginitate (Carmina 8.3) 155 (in Opera Poetica, MGH AA 4/1, 181–91, at 185); Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [hereafter: HE] 1.7, 18, 20 (Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. and transl. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors [Oxford, 1969], 28–35, 58–61, 64–5); Julia Crick, ed., Charters of St Albans (Oxford, 2007).

10 Levison, Wilhelm, ‘St Alban and St Alban's’, Antiquity 15 (1941), 337–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 338–9, 358.

11 Arnold-Forster, Frances E., Studies in Church Dedications: or, England's Patron Saints, 3 vols (London, 1899), 2: 293–9Google Scholar.

12 Ibid. 3: 1–26.

13 Chronicon abbatiæ de Evesham ad annum 1418, ed. William D. Macray (London, 1863), 73.

14 Bassett, Steven, ‘Churches in Worcester before and after the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons’, Antiquaries Journal 69 (1989), 225–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 243–5.

15 Baker, Nigel and Holt, Richard, Urban Growth and the Medieval Church: Gloucester and Worcester (Aldershot, 2004), 139, 197–203Google Scholar.

16 Mike Naptham, ‘Archaeological Evaluation at St Alban's Church, Deansway, Worcester, WCM 101278 (2006)’, Unpublished report SWR18691, held at the Worcester Archive and Archaeology Service, 7.6.2, 8.6, 9.1–2.

17 Grimes, William F., The Excavation of Roman and Mediaeval London (London, 1968), 203–7Google Scholar.

18 Cohen, Natalie, ‘St Alban's, Wood Street’, in Milne, Gustav, ed., Excavations at Medieval Cripplegate, London: Archaeology after the Blitz, 1946–1968 (Swindon, 2001), 86–100Google Scholar, at 94.

19 Gesta abbatum monasterii sancti Albani, s.a. 793, ed. Robert Niblett, in ‘Appendix 2: Sources for the Archaeology of St Albans’, in Niblett, Rosalind and Thompson, Isobel, Alban's Buried Towns: An Assessment of St Albans’ Archaeology up to AD 1600 (Oxford, 2005), 359–88Google Scholar, at 360.

20 Julia Crick, ‘Offa, Ælfric and the Refoundation of St Albans’, in Henig and Lindley, eds, Alban and St Albans, 78–84; see also Taylor, Pamela, ‘The Early St Alban's Endowment and its Chroniclers’, HR 68 (1995), 119–242CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Thomas M. Charles-Edwards, Wales and the Britons, 350–1064 (Cambridge, 2013), 397–410Google Scholar.

22 Hayward, ‘Cult’, 181.

23 Wilson, H. A., ed., The Calendar of St Willibrord from MS Paris. Lat. 10837 (London, 1918)Google Scholar. Another Briton, Gildas, appears to be a later addition: ibid. 3, 20.

24 HE 1.7 (my translation).

25 For other speculations regarding Offa's motives, see Martin, Richard, ‘The Lives of the Offas: the Posthumous Reputation of Offa, King of the Mercians’, in Hill, David and Worthington, Margaret, eds, Æthelbald and Offa: Two Eighth-Century Kings of Mercia, British Archaeological Reports, British Series 383 (Oxford, 2005), 49–54Google Scholar, at 50–1.

26 Annales regni Francorum, s.a. 794 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 6, 3–115, at 95).

27 Tattenhall predates its acquisition by Abbey, St Werburgh, 1096x1101: The Chartulary or Register of the Abbey of St. Werburgh, Chester, ed. Tait, James, 2 vols (Manchester, 1920–3), 1: 13–37Google Scholar (charter 3). Frant first appears in a 1093x1103 charter: Eeles, Henry S., Frant: A Parish History (Tunbridge Wells, 1947), 18–9Google Scholar, 46–9. Withernwick predates its acquisition by Aumale Priory in 1115: Allison, Keith J. and Kent, G. H. R., ‘North Division: Withernwick’, A History of the County of York, East Riding, 12 vols, Victoria History of the Counties of England (London, 1969–2012), 7: 405–15Google Scholar.

28 See Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle, ‘Origins’, 66–9; Crick, ‘Offa’, 80–3.

29 Hayward, ‘Cult’, 182–6.

30 Earsdon (7), founded c.1097; Wymondham (8), 1107: Arnold-Forster, Studies, 2: 298. Wickersley (10), probably twelfth-century, is first mentioned c.1230: Fasti Parochiales, ed. A. Hamilton Thompson and S. T. Clay, 5 vols (Wakefield, 1933–85), 2/2: 118. Alban's body was briefly moved to Ely (11) during the Conquest (whence relics were translated to Denmark): Liber Eliensis: A History of the Isle of Ely from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth, transl. Janet Fairweather (Woodbridge, 2005), 207–8. Beaworthy (12) may be a confusion with John the Baptist: Orme, Nicholas, English Church Dedications: With a Survey of Cornwall and Devon (Exeter, 1996), 131Google Scholar.

31 Levison, ‘St Alban’, 340–3.

32 Gildas, De excidio 10 (Winterbottom, ed., Gildas, 19, 92). On the interpretation of this passage, see Garcia, Michael, ‘Gildas and the “grievous divorce from the barbarians”’, EME 21 (2013), 243–53Google Scholar.

33 HE 1.7.

34 HE 2.16; 3.9, 10; 5.18.

35 Davis, Kenneth Rutherford, Britons and Saxons: The Chiltern Region 400–700 (Chichester, 1982), 118–20Google Scholar.

36 Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle, ‘Origins’, 65–6, 72–3.

37 The ‘excerpts’ (BHL 211a), and the ‘P’ (BHL 211) and ‘T’ (BHL 210d) versions: Meyer, ‘Die Legende’, 35–47. BHL numbers refer to the Bollandist catalogue Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis, 4 vols, Subsidia Hagiographica 6, 12, 70 (Brussels, 1898–1986).

38 On Norman support, see Hayward, ‘Cult’, 186–98, though note the dispute with Ely: Ridyard, S. J., ‘Condigna Veneratio: Post-Conquest Attitudes to the Saints of the Anglo-Saxons’, in Anglo-Norman Studies 9: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1986, ed. Brown, R. Allen (Woodbridge, 1987), 179–206Google Scholar, at 190.

39 Lowe, William R. L., ‘History of the Legend of St Alban’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London 27 (1914–15), 58–67Google Scholar; Baker, Eric P., ‘The Cult of St Alban at Cologne’, Archaeological Journal 94 (1938), 207–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Beck, Marcel, ‘St Alban in Uri. Ein Zeuge spät-antiken Christentums’, Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Geschichte 28 (1948), 273–309Google Scholar; Büttner, Heinrich, ‘Zur Albanverehrung im frühen Mittelalter’, Zeitschrift für schweizerische Geschichte 29 (1949), 1–16Google Scholar; Dolch, Martin, ‘Die Heiligennamen Albin und Alban. Zur Verehrung westfränkischer Heiliger im 8. Jahrhundert’, Archiv für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte 39 (1987), 43–66Google Scholar. On Gallic cults generally, see Ian Wood‚ ‘Constructing Cults in Early Medieval France: Local Saints and Churches in Burgundy and the Auvergne 400–1000’, in Thacker and Sharpe, eds, Local Saints and Local Churches, 155–87.

40 The principal topographical source is Dauzat, Albert and Rostaing, Charles, Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France, 2nd edn (Paris, 1978), 583–4Google Scholar, though this is far from complete. Brigitte Beaujard lists various sixth-century Gallic cults but not Alban's: Le Culte des Saints en Gaul (Paris, 2000), 524–31.

41 Nègre, Ernest, Toponymie générale de la France, 4 vols (Geneva, 1990–8), 3: 1530–1Google Scholar.

42 Dolch, ‘Die Heiligennamen Albin und Alban’.

43 First mentioned in 910: Courson, Aurelien de, ed., Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Redon en Bretagne (Paris, 1863), 226Google Scholar. For Gildas, see Largillière, René, ‘La Topographie du culte de Saint Gildas’, Mémoire de la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Bretagne 5 (1924), 1–25Google Scholar.

44 Picard, Jean-Charles, ‘Auxerre’, in Gauthier, Nancy and Picard, Jean-Charles, eds, Topographie chrétienne des cites de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, 16 vols in 17 (Paris, 1986–2014), 8: 47–65Google Scholar, at 56.

45 Mathisen, Ralph W., Ecclesiastical Factionalism and Religious Controversy in Fifth-Century Gaul (Washington DC, 1989), 101–2Google Scholar.

46 Dynamius, Vita sancti Maximi episcopi Reiensis 8 (Pascal Boulhol et al., Maxime de Riez entre l'histoire et la légende [Valensole, 2014], 112, cf. 58–9); Alban's church was later rededicated to Maximus: 72–3. Philippe Borgard and Marc Heijmans, ‘Riez’, in Françoise Prévot, Michèle Gaillard and Nancy Gauthier, eds, Topographie chrétienne, 16/1: 240.

47 Vita Germani 19–24 (MGH SRM 7, 265–9). Germanus died before November 450: Gillett, Andrew, Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West, 411–533 (Cambridge 2003), 278–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Cf. Mathisen, Ecclesiastical Factionalism, 69–173.

49 Bromwich, James, The Roman Remains of Southern France: A Guidebook (London, 1993), 286–8Google Scholar.

50 Meyer, ‘Die Legende’, 41, 43.

51 Rivet, Albert L. F., Gallia Narbonensis: Southern France in Roman Times (London, 1988), 243–6Google Scholar.

52 Vita sancti Severi Viennensis presbytreri et confessoris 3, 8 (AnBoll 5 [1886], 416–24, at 417, 421). The vita mentions the relics of Desiderius of Vienne (d. 607), but was itself used by Florus of Lyon (d. c.860), so must have been composed between these dates.

53 Françoise Descombes, ‘Vienne’, in Gauthier and Picard, eds, Topographie chrétienne, 3: 31.

54 Locatelli, René and Moyse, Gérard, ‘Une Pierre d'attente du volume de Gallia Pontificia en chantier pour le diocèse de Lyon. L'Abbaye de Saint-Claude’, Revue Mabillon 79 (2007), 253–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 268–9 (charters 14, 16).

55 Autun, Séminaire, MS S38 (34), fols 70r–70v; Guy Lanoë, ‘S 38 (34) Passiones martyrum’, Catalogue des manuscrits d'Autun, Bibliothèque municipale et Société Éduenne, ed. Claire Maître (Turnhout, 2004), 128–33.

56 Coralie Belleville and Julie Régnier, ‘Fonts baptismaux, actuellement bénitier’, Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel, Région Rhône-Alpes, Dossier IM69000851 (2002), online at: <http://patrimoine.rhonealpes.fr/dossier/fonts-baptismaux-actuellement-benitier/e5df5d64-841b-436b-8b98-00f76e6b56a6>, accessed 14 December 2015. Gardes, Gilbert, Lyon. L'Art et la ville (Paris, 1988), 129Google Scholar, considers the church to be sixth-century.

57 Vita Germani 12 (MGH SRM 7, 259). Bede indicates his diocese: HE 1.17.

58 Fontvannes (Aube), first mentioned in 1019: Denajar, Laurent, L'Aube (Paris, 2005), 345–6Google Scholar; and Fontaine Luyères (Aube), near the source of the Barbuise.

59 Vita Germani 28 (MGH SRM 7, 271–2).

60 Columbus, Johannes, De rebus gestis episcoporum vivariensium, 4 vols (Lyon, 1651), 1Google Scholar: 17.

61 ‘Inventaire général du Patrimoine Culturel de Rhône Alpes Canton de Viviers – Commune de Viviers – Saint-Ostian. Réf. Mérimée ia00048156’, online at: <http://www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/memoire/HTML/IVR82/ia00048156/>; from the same site: ‘Saint-Michel’, <. . . /ia00048151/>; ‘Saint-Julien’, <. . . /ia00048150/>; ‘Saint-Victor’, <. . . /ia00048149/>; ‘Saint-Aule’, <. . . /ia00048153/>, all accessed 14 December 2015; Paul-Albert Fevrier, ‘Alba-Viviers’, in Gauthier and Picard, eds, Topographie chrétienne, 3: 55–61; Marc Heijmans, ‘Viviers’, in Prévot, Gaillard and Gauthier, eds, Topographie chrétienne, 16/1: 326–8.

62 ‘Saint-Alban’, online at: <http://www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/memoire/HTML/IVR82/ia00048155/>, accessed 14 December 2015. The church is listed as twelfth-century.

63 Fevrier, ‘Alba-Viviers’, 58.

64 Fevrier, Paul-Albert, ‘Aime et Moutiers (Tarentaise)’, in Gauthier and Picard, eds, Topographie chrétienne, 3: 141–4Google Scholar, at 144.

65 Jaulmes, Michel and Hudry, Marius, ‘L'Archéologie en Tarentaise, 1940–1980’, Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Savoie 12 (1981), 57–72Google Scholar, at 66.

66 ‘Région Poitou-Charentes, Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel. Cognac Périphérie (Charente). Réf. Mérimée: IA00059251’, online at: <http://www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/memoire/HTML/IVR54/IA00059251/>, accessed 14 December 2015.

67 ‘De loco ubi sanguis eius influxerat, sustulit ex terra pulverem cum cruore et fideliter domi referens’, Vita Bibiani vel Viviani episcopi Santonensis 8 (in Passiones Vitaeque Sanctorum aeui Merovingici, MGH SRM 3, 92–100, at 99). This seems to copy ‘de loco ipso ubi martyris sanguis exfluxerat massam cruenti pulueris rapuit’ from Alban's passio (common words shown in italics): Meyer, ‘Die Legende’, 45.

68 Krusch thought it dated from the eighth century: MGH SRM 3, 92–3. Ferdinand Lot thought it was earlier: ‘La Vita Viviani et la domination Wisigothique en Aquitaine’, Mélanges Paul Fournier (Paris, 1929), 467–77. On the possibility of borrowing, see Gillett, Envoys, 143–8.

69 Vita Bibiani 9 (MGH SRM 3, 100).

70 In the suburbs of Saint-Germain and Saint-Alban-des-Vignes (Isère): Pelletier, André, Vienna, Vienne (Lyon, 2001), 113Google Scholar. For context, St Vincent's church, at the north end of the Circus, is from the late fifth or early sixth century: Descombes, ‘Vienne’, 33.

71 Saint-Alban-de-Roche and Saint-Germain d'Abeau, Isère: Berger, Michelle et al., Histoire des communes de l'Isère, 4 vols (Saint-Étienne, 1987), 2: 432–3Google Scholar, 443–4.

72 St Alban, Elven, and the hamlet of Saint-Germain (Morbihan); St Alban, Albens, and St Germain-la-Chambotte (Savoie). Dual dedications are also present in Auxerre and St Albans.

73 See Wood, ‘Constructing Cults’.

74 Vita Germani, epistola ad Censurium (MGH SRM 7, 248–9).

75 For Lyon, see Reynaud, J. F., ‘Lyon du IVe au VIIIe siècle. Édifices religieux, nécropoles et topographie urbaine’, Walker, Stephen, ed., Récentes recherches en archéologie gallo-romaine et paléochrétienne sur Lyon et sa région, British Archaeological Records, International Series 108 (Oxford, 1981), 126–33Google Scholar.

76 Venantius Fortunatus, De virginitate 155 (MGH AA 4/1, 185).

77 Levison, ‘St Alban’, 338. Nopper, Hans Werner, Die vorbonifatianischen Mainzer Bischöfe. Eine kritische Untersuchung der Quellen zu den Anfängen des Bistums Mainz und zur Zuverlässigkeit der Bischofslisten (Norderstedt, 2001), 45–56Google Scholar, 124–33.

78 Terrien, Marie-Pierre, La Christianisation de la région rhénane. Du IVe au milieu du VIIIe siècle, 2 vols (Besançon, 2007), 1: 68–9Google Scholar, 78, 84, 94; 2: 141.

79 Rabanus Maurus, Martyrologium (CChr.CM 46, 1–161, at 60); Passio S. Theonesti, ActaSS Oct. 13, 335–48 (BHL 8110); Ewig, Eugan, ‘Die ältesten Mainzer Bischofsgräber, die Bischofsliste und die Theonestlegende’, in Lenhart, Ludwig, ed., Universitas. Dienst an Wahrheit und Leben, 2 vols (Mainz, 1960), 2: 19–27Google Scholar.

80 Palmer, James T., ‘The Frankish Cult of Martyrs and the Case of the Two Saints Boniface’, Revue Bénédictine 114 (2004), 326–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 338–43.

81 Alban of Mainz figures as an addition by a second hand in the Berne and Wissembourg MSS: Martyrologium Hieronymianum, ActaSS Nov. 2, 1–156, at 80.

82 Yorke, Barbara, ‘Aldhelm's Irish and British Connections’, in Barker, Katherine and Brooks, Nicholas, eds, Aldhelm and Sherborne: Essays to Celebrate the Founding of the Bishopric (Oxford, 2010), 164–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 164–9.

83 Baker, ‘Cult’, 217–18.

84 Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS D.V.3, fol. 254r; David Ganz and Monique Goullet, ‘Le Légendier du Turin et L’écriture AB’, in Goullet, Monique, ed., Le Légendier de Turin. Ms. D.V.3 de la Bibliotheque Nationale Universitaire (Firenze, 2014), 75–9Google Scholar.

85 Plummer, Charles, ed., Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica, 2 vols (Oxford, 1896), 1: lxxxvi–viiiGoogle Scholar, 18–21; 2: 18.

86 Dolch, ‘Die Heiligennamen Albin und Alban’, 54–5.

87 Beck, ‘St Alban in Uri’, 281–3.

88 Becker, Petrus, Die Benediktinerabtei St Eucharius-St. Matthias vor Trier (Berlin, 1996), 564CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89 Hupe, Joachim, ‘Ein römisches Gräberfeld bei Trier-Feyen und die Anfänge der Kapelle St Germanus ad undas’, Funde und Ausgrabungen im Bezirk Trier 40 (2008), 95–106Google Scholar.

90 Space does not permit similar speculation as to the origin of the cathedral of Saint-Aubain in Namur.

91 Vita Germani 25 (MGH SRM 7, 269); HE 1.21. René Borius thought Severus was instead from Vence: Vie de Saint Germain d'Auxerre, SC 112, 89; cf. Higham, Nicholas J., ‘Constantius, St Germanus and Fifth-Century Britain’, EME 22 (2014), 113–37Google Scholar.