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The Figure of Constantine the Great in Cynewulf's ‘Elene’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Gordon Whatley
Gordon Whatley*
Affiliation:
Queens College, The City University of New York
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Extract

The first two hundred lines of Cynewulf's Elene deal not with Elene's finding of the Holy Cross but with the events that lead to the conversion of her son, the emperor Constantine. They recount the invasion of his kingdom by a horde of Goths, Huns, and Franks; his fear and despair at the prospect of doing battle with such a vastly superior force; his nocturnal vision of the cross with its famous promise of victory; the crushing defeat he inflicts on the invaders the next day; his triumphant return to Rome, where he learns from his counsellors that the cross is the sign of God; his evangelization by a group of Christians; and his subsequent baptism. Only after all this does the quest for the True Cross get underway, at Constantine's bidding. Although the fifth-century Inventio Sanctae Crucis, Cynewulf's principal source, narrates these events in a few lines of bare, prosaic Latin, the Old English poet has turned them into the most extensive piece of amplification in the whole work, chiefly, but not entirely, by providing detailed descriptions of the invading and defending armies, and of the battle itself, in recognizably formulaic style with much skillful repetition and variation.

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Traditio , Volume 37 , 1981 , pp. 161 - 202
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 The edition used for line references and quotations in this article is that of Krapp, George Philip, The Vercelli Book (New York & London 1932), but that of Gradon, P. O. E., Cynewulf's ‘Elene’ (Methuen's Old English Library 1958; rvd. rpt., U. of Exeter 1977), has been invaluable.Google Scholar

2 Holder, Alfred, ed., Inventio Sanctae Crucis (Leipzig 1889); usually more accessible, but less reliable for the early medieval stage of the textual tradition, is Henschen, G. & Papebroch, E., edd., Acta Sanctorum Maii I (Antwerp 1680) 445-48, where the legend is entitled Acta Apocrypha [Quiriaci] Pars I. There is a translation of the AS text: Allen, Michael J. B. & Calder, Daniel G., Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry (Cambridge & Totowa, N.J. 1976). In this article, for quotations and references, I have used Holder, usually preferring his readings from MS St. Gall 225 (recommended by Gradon, Cynewulf's ‘Elene’ 16 n. 3), and checking them against MSS Bodley Laud. Misc. 129 and Brit. Lib. Add. 11880, all of which are of the 9th century or earlier.Google Scholar

Because Cynewulf treats the Inventio so freely, it will probably never be possible to determine on which manuscript of the legend he based his poem, even if such a manuscript had survived. One can say with some confidence, however, that he was working from a text which could have differed only in minor ways from those surviving today. By the 9th century, the Inventio was circulating freely throughout Western Christendom in manuscripts which show remarkably little variation from one another. The text had early acquired a fixed form, and the changes made in the course of the 7th through 10th centuries were mostly editorial corrections and scribal errors. There are no major changes until the appearance of the epitomes of the legend in the 11th century and later, some examples of which are MSS British Library Royal 6.A.II and 7.A.XI and Biblioteca Vittorio Emmanuele, Cod. Sessor. 590. See Millar, E. H., The Library of A. Chester Beatty (London 1927-30) I 34–35. Since Cynewulf's poem agrees in so many minute details with the full-length early medieval versions of the legend, one must assume, for want of specific evidence to the contrary, that he was familiar with a text very like that of MS St. Gall 225, as Dr. Gradon has suggested, and that one is therefore justified in making judicious comparisons between his Old English text and the Latin manuscripts.Google Scholar

3 On the artistry of the marches and the battle, see Fry, Donald K., ‘Themes and Type Scenes in Elene 1-113,’ Speculum 44 (1969) 33–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Gerould, Gordon H., Saints' Legends (Boston & New York 1916) 70–76; Kennedy, Charles W., The Earliest English Poetry (London & New York 1943) 214.Google Scholar

5 Greenfield, Stanley B., A Critical History of Old English Literature (New York 1965) 113ff.Google Scholar

6 Rosemary Woolf's stimulating essay, ‘Saints’ Lives' in Stanley, E. G., ed., Continuations and Beginnings (London & Edinburgh 1966) 46–47, contains a thoughtful appreciation which in the end, however, finds the poem wanting on the grounds that Judas' failure to martyr himself is artistically unsatisfying. J. E. Cross's brief notice, in The Middle Ages , ed. Bolton, W. F. (History of Literature in the English Language I; London 1970) 33-34, is a mere gesture. Shippey, T. A., Old English Verse (London 1972) 166-70, testifies to the stimulus of the American approach with his interesting comments on Judas, but his remark (209 n. 22) that J. Gardner's article (see below, n. 7) is ‘thorough’ is disconcerting.Google Scholar

7 In chronological order: Stepsis, Robert and Rand, Richard, ‘Contrast and Conversion in Cynewulf's Elene,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 70 (1969) 273–82; Gardner, John, ‘Cynewulf's Elene: Sources and Structure,’ Neophilologus 54 (1970) 65-76; Hill, Thomas D., ‘Sapiential Structure and Figural Narrative in the Old English Elene,’ Traditio 27 (1971) 159-77; Calder, Daniel, ‘Strife, Revelation, and Conversion: The Thematic Structure of Elene,’ English Studies 53 (1972), 201-10; Campbell, Jackson J., ‘Cynewulf's Multiple Revelations,’ Mediaevalia et Humanistica n.s. 3 (1972) 257-77; Regan, Catharine A., ‘Evangelicalism as the Informing Principle of Cynewulf's Elene,’ Traditio 29 (1973) 27-52; Anderson, Earl R., ‘Cynewulf's Elene: Manuscript Divisions and Structural Symmetry,’ Modern Philology 72 (1974) 111-22; Fish, Varda, ‘Theme and Pattern in Cynewulf's Elene,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975) 1-25; Hermann, John P., ‘The Theme of Spiritual Warfare in the Old English Elene,’ Papers on Language and Literature, 11 (1975) 115-25; Gordon Whatley, E., ‘Bread and Stone: Cynewulf's Elene 611-618,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975) 550-60, and ‘Old English Onomastics and Narrative Art: Elene 1062,’ Modern Philology 73 (1975) 109-19; Wright, Ellen F., ‘Cynewulf's Elene and “singal sacu,”’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975) 538-49.Google Scholar

8 E.g., the articles by Hill, , Regan, , and Whatley.Google Scholar

9 E.g., Calder, , Campbell, , Fish, , and Hermann, . Earl Anderson's article in MP is exceptional in recognizing Constantine's importance to the meaning of the work as a whole. I have benefited considerably from this article, to which this paper is complementary, and from Anderson's unpublished paper, ‘Constantine and the Christian Ordo’ (delivered May 1977 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. See below, n. 11).Google Scholar

10 The ‘figural’ quality of Elene, as a type of the Church, and of Judas as a type of the Synagogue, has been explored by Hill, Regan, and Campbell (see above, n. 7).Google Scholar

11 Anderson's Kalamazoo paper (see above, n. 9), which was based on a section of his unpublished monograph, ‘A Reading of Cynewulf's Elene,’ notes the Davidic quality of Cynewulf's Constantine and recognizes his newly Christian subjects as the populus Dei or new Israel. But he arrives at these conclusions through arguments and evidence quite different from my own, and he does not deal with specific Old Testament parallels or allusions, nor with the idea of the covenant. I am indebted to these studies, however, not only for their independent confirmation of my interpretation, but also for many helpful bibliographical references. I more recently heard a stimulating paper on the figure of Constantine in Elene by Antony J. Ugolnik (‘Beowulf and Byzantium, Cynewulf and Constantine,’ read at the 12th Annual Conference of CEMERS, at the State University of New York, Binghamton, on Byzantium and the West, October 19-20, 1978). Prof. Ugolnik's view of Constantine's role in the poem agrees largely with that advanced in this article, but he again uses evidence and arguments different from my own, asserting that the character of Constantine's kingship in the poem is markedly Byzantine and is to be attributed to the direct influence of Byzantium on 8th- and 9th-century Anglo-Saxon England. Prof. Ugolnik's work on Elene came to my notice too late for me to take account of it in the text of this article.Google Scholar

12 On types of conversion in Christianity and other religions, see Underwood, Alfred Clair, Conversion: Christian and Non-Christian, A Comparative and Psychological Study (London 1925). On the historical circumstances of Constantine's conversion, see in general Jones, A. H. M., Constantine and the Conversion of Europe (London 1948), and Alfoldi, Andras, The Conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome (Oxford 1948).Google Scholar

13 Judas himself recalls his father's account of how Saul ‘concitauit populum aduersus fratrem nostrum Stephanum et pietate ductus dominus fecit eum unum de Sanctis discipulis suis’ (Holder 6, 21). Judas imitates Saul by stiffening the resistance of his fellow doctores legis against Helena, in an attempt to maintain the old state and religion of the Jews. Like Saul of Tarsus he experiences a rather violent epiphany, a period of oblivion, then complete conversion to a life of tireless service to Christ. Like Saul, Judas also changes his name upon his conversion.Google Scholar

14 St. Paul's story begins in Acts 7.57ff., with the reference to his complicity in Stephen's stoning. Cf. the calling of Peter and Andrew, Matt. 4.18-20: ‘Ambulans autem ihesus iuxta mare galylee vidit duos fratres symonem qui vocatur Petrus: et andream fratrem eius mittentes rete in mare (erant enim piscatores) et ait illis: Uenite post me: faciam vos fieri piscatores hominum. At illi continuo relictis retibus secuti sunt eum’ (Biblical references in this article are to Biblia Latina cum Glossa ordinaria …, 4 vols. (Strasburg: Adolf Rusch for Anton Koberger, 1481).Google Scholar

15 The ancient western feast of SS. Peter and Paul, celebrated on June 29, commemorates the joint martyrdom of the two saints; see Duchesne, L., Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution, trans. McClure, M. L. (5th ed.; London & New York 1919) 277. On SS. Peter and Paul in art, see Mâle, Émile, Les Saints compagnons du Christ (Paris 1958) 86-124. Cf. the opening to the Blickling Homily, Spel Be Petrus & Paulus: ‘… se is oϷer cyricean hyrde to Cristes handa, oϷer is hire lareow. OϷer is, ic cweϷe, se æresta apostol, oϷer se nehsta; Petrus ær Cristes Ϸrowunga, & Paulus æfter his upastignesse; begen on geleafan gelice, begen wuldres beag æt urum Drihtne gesæliglice onfengon, forϷon Ϸe hie, on Ϸære halgan Ϸrowunge ealra on Cristes soϷre eaϷmodlicre andetnesse oϷ heora lifes ende, untweogende mode Ϸurhwunodan ….’ Morris, R., ed., The Blickling Homilies (EETS, o.s. 58, 63, 73; London, 1874, ‘76, ’80; rptd. 1967) 171.Google Scholar

16 See Bede's, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, edd. Colgrave, Bertram & Mynors, R. A. B. (Oxford 1969) 28–34, on St. Alban's martyrdom and cult; see also Colgrave, Bertram, ed., Two Lives of St. Cuthbert (Cambridge 1940) 64-66, for the early, untroubled conversion of St. Cuthbert to the monastic calling.Google Scholar

17 Hurst, D., ed., Bedae In Lucae Evangelium expositio (CCL 120; Turnhout 1960) 407. The broad currency of Bede's commentary on Luke's Gospel may be assumed from the large number of early as well as late medieval MSS. Cf. Laistner, M. L. W., A Hand-list of Bede MSS (Ithaca, NY 1943) 44-45. Rhabanus Maurus' commentary on the centurion passage in Matt. 27.54, is taken almost verbatim from Bede's In Lucam. Google Scholar

18 Some important and representative texts in the anti-Judaic apologetic tradition are Justin's Dialogue with Trypho (PG 6.680ff.); Tertullian, , Adversus Iudaeos (PL 2.595ff.); Chrysostom, John, Adversus Judaeos et Gentiles demonstratio, quod Christus sit Deus (PG 48.813-38); Augustine, , Tractatus adversus Judaeos (PL 83.449-537). Neither Justin's Dialogue nor Chrysostom's Quod Christus is likely to have been known in Anglo-Saxon England, but they must be assumed to have been factors in the literary/theological environment from which the Inventio Sanctae Crucis, which some scholars believe to be of Syrian origin, emerged. Cf. Tixéront, L.-J., Les Origines de l‘église d’Édesse (Paris 1888) 163-70. For an overview of the anti-Judaic tradition see Parkes, J. W., The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue (New York 1969); more specific but useful is Hulen, Amos, ‘Dialogues with the Jews as Sources of Early Jewish Arguments against Christianity,’ Journal of Biblical Literature 51 (1932) 58-70. See also the references given by Hill, , ‘Sapiential Structure’ 166 nn. 22-23.Google Scholar

19 It should be pointed out that the other major legendary account of Constantine's conversion, in the Vita Silvestri (see Mombritius, B., Sanctuarium seu Vitae Sanctorum [2nd ed.; Paris 1910] II 508–31), takes a quite different view of the event. It represents Constantine as a persecutor of Christians, stricken with leprosy for his crimes, who after humanely refusing to cure his disease by bathing in the blood of slaughtered babes (his doctors' recommendation!), has a vision of SS. Peter & Paul. They commend him for his selflessness in the matter and advise him to recall the exiled Bishop of Rome, Silvester, who will heal him through baptism. This legend, which arose at the same time as, or shortly after, that of the Inventio Sanctae Crucis, i.e. during the 5th century, later became the basis of the famous papal forgery known as the Constitutum Constantini. The two legends promote starkly contrasting views of the nature of the relationship between Church and Empire. For discussion of the origins of the Silvester legend, and for bibliography, see the most recent study, by Loenertz, R. J., ‘Actus Sylvestri: Genèse d'une légende,’ Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 70 (1975) 426-39. See below, pp. 187ff., for further discussion of the Sylvester legend.Google Scholar

20 For example, the Latin texts say simply that, in response to the angel's ‘Constantine noli timere sed respice sursum in caelum et uide,’ the emperor ‘intendens in caelum uidit signum crucis …’ (Holder 1, 15). In the Old English, however, the emperor's attitude is described: ‘He wæs sona gearu / Ϸurh Ϸæs halgan hæs, hreÐerlocan onspeon, / up locade, swa him se ar abead, …’ (85-87). The OE version here emphasizes the emperor's ready obedience to the command, and, if hreÐerlocan onspeon does indeed mean that Constantine ‘made his heart open’ (rather than that he, i.e. the angel, ‘spoke’), it also emphasizes the receptivity and openness of the Gentile in his first encounter with revealed truth. (For the textual problem, see Krapp's note [p. 134] on Elene 86, and also Gradon's note on the same line.) If on the other hand the phrase means that the angel opened up Constantine's heart, the situation would be verbally and substantially the same as in Acts 16.14: ‘Et quedam mulier nomine lidda … colens deum audiuit: cuius dominus aperuit cor intendere his que dicebantur a paulo.’ Google Scholar

21 On his return from his victory over the Huns and Goths, Cynewulf's Constantine summons his counselors snude to sionoÐe, ‘quickly to assembly.’ He asks them to tell him the identity of his divine benefactor, thereby showing himself aware, even before his evangelization, that the cross is no mere ‘physical object’ to him, but the sign of a divine being who has saved his people and ‘Ϸe me swa leoht oÐywde …, / tacna torhtost’ (163-64), as well as giving him victory in battle. The evangelization which follows in the OE version is more detailed than in the Latin texts. The latter simply state that Constantine was told about ‘mysterium Trinitatis et aduentum fili Dei quemadmodum natus est et crucifixus est tertia die resurrexit a mortuis’ (Holder, 3, 16). In the OE, Constantine is taught to see the cross as the instrument of Christ's passion, by which He ‘Alysde leoda beam of locan deofla, / geomre gastas, ond him gife sealde / Ϸurh Ϸa ilcan gesceaft Ϸe him geywed wearÐ / sylfum on gesyhÐe, sigores tacen, / wiÐ Ϸeoda Ϸræce.’ (181-85). A later passage which similarly contradicts the notion of a superficial conversion is 194-202, with its picture of the ideal Christian monarch, filled with joy and faith in ‘the guardian of heaven's kingdom.’ For discussion of the Old Testament aspects of this portrait, see below, pp. 189ff. Google Scholar

22 Cf. the OE version, lines 202-10, which explains how the crucifixion was perpetrated, with the simple statement of the Latin texts: ‘Cum [Constantinus] didicisset a Sanctis euangeliis ubi esset dominus crucifixus misit suam matrem Aelenam ut quaereret…’ (Holder 2, 16).Google Scholar

23 Colgrave, & Mynors, , Bede's Ecclesiastical History, 2.9-3.1 (162-214). See also Stenton, F. M., Ango-Saxon England (2nd ed.; Oxford 1947) 113–16.Google Scholar

24 Quoted by Bede, , Eccles. Hist. 1.32 (Colgrave & Mynors 112).Google Scholar

25 Gregory shows knowledge of Rufinus elsewhere in his letters, e.g. in one written in 595 to the Emperor Maurice, complaining of the lack of respect the latter has shown toward him. Gregory recalls how Constantine, by contrast, refused to listen to complaints about his bishops because he considered them to be like ‘gods and angels’ and thus not subject to his judgment. He cites an Ecclesiastica historia for this story and appears to be referring to Rufinus 10.8. Gregorii Papae registrum epistolarum edd. Ewald, P. & Hartmann, L. M. (MGH: Epistolae 1; Berlin 1891) I 318.Google Scholar

26 For another example, cf. Pope Boniface's letter to King Edwin of Northumbria, urging him to commit himself to the Christian cause, quoted in full by Bede, Eccles. Hist. 2.10 (Colgrave & Mynors 166-70). The letter reveals the clerical mind of the time straining with every device of rhetoric to soften the obduracy of the pagan king, and describes the operation of divine grace in language strikingly similar to Cynewulf's description (lines 85-98) of the conversion process in Constantine: ‘… tamen eius humanitatis ad insinuationem sui reseratis cordis ianuis quae de semet ipsa proferetur secreta humanis mentibus inspiratione clementer infundit …’ (Colgrave & Mynors 166-67). Cf. also the same pope's letter to Bishop Justus of Rochester, upon the latter's becoming Archbishop: ‘Quod specialiter iniuncto uobis ministerio eius dementia demonstrauit, aperiens corda gentium ad suscipiendum praedicationis uestrae singulare mysterium’ (Colgrave & Mynors 158-59). See above, n. 23, regarding God's opening the heart of Constantine.Google Scholar

27 The military associations and physical power of the vexillum crucis are evident in two of the prayers which formed the Mass-set for the feast of the Inventio S. Crucis in the Gelasian Sacramentary, in its eighth- and early-ninth-century forms. The prayers are the Secreta (also known as Super Oblata) and the Post-Communionem: ‘Secreta: Sacrificium, domine, quod immolamus placatus intende, ut ab omni nos exuat bellorum nequitia, et per uixillum sanctae crucis filii tui ad conterendas potestates aduersariorum insidias nos in tua proteccionis securitate constituat…. Post-Communionem: Repleta alimonia caelesti et spirituali poculo recreati quaesumus, omnipotens deus, ut ab hoste maligno defendas, quos per ligno [sic] sanctae crucis filii tui, arma iusticiae pro salutem mundi, triumphare iussisti’ (Liber Sacramentorum Romanae Aeclesiae ordinis anni circuli, ed. Mohlberg, L. C., with Eizenhöfer, L. & Siffrin, P. [Rer. eccles. doc., ser. maior: Fontes 4; Rome 1960] 138). Cf. Mohlberg, , Das fränkische Sacramentorum Gelasianum in alamannischer Überlieferung (2d ed.; Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen 1-2; Münster 1939) 114-15, which, in common with the other 8th-century ‘Gelasians,’ substitutes ab hostium furore for ab hoste maligno. The Gelasian Sacramentary, which was in use among the Frankish clergy during the 8th-9th c., is now generally agreed to be the servicebook which most likely reflects the English liturgical usages of the 7th-9th centuries, and with which Cynewulf would be familiar. An English liturgiologist recently proposed that the Gelasian Sacramentary was actually based on a service-book compiled by Augustine of Canterbury for his mission. See Hohler, C. E., ‘Some Service-Books of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church,’ in David Parsons, ed., Tenth Century Studies (London 1975) 61-62. On the same topic, with similar conclusions, see Frank, H., ‘Die Briefe des hl. Bonifatius und das von ihm benutzte Sakramentar,’ in Sankt Bonifatius; Gedenkgabe zum zwölfhundertsten Todestag (Fulda 1954) 75ff., and the article by H. Ashworth in New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1967) XII 796.Google Scholar

28 Bainton, R. H., Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace (New York 1960) especially 85ff., for an account of the theory of the just war among Christian writers such as Jerome and Augustine. See also Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., ‘War and Peace in the Earlier Middle Ages,’ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th ser. 25 (1974) 157-74, and Tooke, Joan, The Just War in Aquinas and Grotius (London 1965) ch. 1. J. E. Cross focuses on the just war in Old English literature in ‘The Ethic of War in Old English,’ in Peter Clemoes & Kathleen Hughes, edd., England Before the Conquest (Cambridge 1971). He points out, pp. 280-82, that the Church, while countenancing the necessity of just warfare, especially if defensive, still demanded light penance for killing in battle. One's impression from Cross's examples, however, is that penance of this kind was simply recognition of physical pollution by the victim's blood rather than of sin in the theological sense. Cross refers to Cynewulf's Elene but does not discuss it.Google Scholar

29 Although official ‘canonization’ of Charlemagne did not happen until the 12th century, his sanctity was taken for granted in France and Germany from his death onward. Rhabanus Maurus, for example, included the name of Carolus Magnus among the saints of his martyrology (DHGE 12.440-41).Google Scholar

30 Cf. Hunter Blair, P., Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge 1966) 52, who remarks that in Bede's History ‘they are portrayed first and foremost as Christian warriors whose achievements in war gave security to the Church within their kingdom.’ Google Scholar

31 Ecclesiastical History 5.23 (Colgrave & Mynors 560-61); cf. also Wallace-Hadrill, , ‘War and Peace’ 166.Google Scholar

32 ‘Sine patrocinio principis Francorum nec populum aecclesiae regere nec presbiteros vel clericos, monachos vel ancillas Dei defendere possum; nec ipsos paganorum ritus et sacrilegia idolorum in Germania sine illius mandato et timore prohibere valeo’ (Boniface to Daniel, Bishop of Winchester ca. 742-46, ed. Dümmler, Ernst [MGH: Epistolae III; Berlin 1892] 329).Google Scholar

33 Bede's, Ecclesiastical History 3.1-4 (Colgrave & Mynors 214-16); Bright, William, Chapters of Early English Church History (3rd ed.; Oxford 1897) 150ff.Google Scholar

34 One wonders how much contemporary accounts of Oswald's victory were colored by the story of Constantine's victory more than three hundred years earlier. Parallels are discussed by Stevens, William O., The Cross in the Life and Literature of the Anglo-Saxons (Yale Studies in English 22, 1904; rptd., with a new preface by Hill, Thomas D., Hamden, Conn. 1977) 85-86, and by Henderson, George, Early Medieval (Style and Civilization; Harmondsworth 1972) 216-17.Google Scholar

35 Ecclesiastical History 3.24-25 (Colgrave & Mynors 288-309). Cf. Stenton, , Anglo-Saxon England 122–25, on the importance of Oswiu's victory for the future of the English Church.Google Scholar

36 MGH: Epp. IV, ed. Dümmler, 66-67; cf. Duckett, Eleanor Shipley, Alcuin, Friend of Charlemagne (1951; rptd., Hamden, Conn. 1965) 130.Google Scholar

37 MGH: Epp. III, ed. Dümmler, 588.Google Scholar

38 Anderson, , ‘Cynewulf's Elene’ 116–17.Google Scholar

39 Cf. Bede, , Ecclesiastical History 1.25 (Colgrave & Mynors 74), where Augustine has a cross carried in front of the procession of singing monks on their way to meet Æthelbert of Kent for the first time: ‘At illi non daemonica sed diuina uirtute praediti ueniebant, crucem pro uexillo ferentes argenteam … laetiniasque canentes ….’ Google Scholar

40 Plunder was no embarrassment either to the Christian kings of the eighth century or to their clerics. When Charles and his sons conquered the Avars and ransacked their Ring stronghold in the 790s, Alcuin was delighted, though evidently deeply concerned that the conquered foe be properly converted (Duckett 134-35). A portion of the booty was sent off in the form of gifts to Pope Hadrian, but he died before they reached him and they were rededicated to his successor (Duckett 135-36; MGH: Epp. IV p. 136).Google Scholar

41 Holder 1, 16.Google Scholar

42 The same meaning is expressed in the skillful rhetoric of one sentence, lines 99-104: Heht Ϸa onlice æÐelinga hleo, beorna beaggifa, swa he Ϸæt beacen geseah, heria hildfruma, Ϸæt him on heofonum ær geiewed wearÐ, ofstum myclum, Constantinus, Cristes rode, tireadig cyning, tacen gewyrcan. [Then the protector of princes, giver of rings to warriors, leader of armies in battle, Constatine, the king blessed with victory, gave orders that a standard should be wrought in all haste, exactly like the sign he had seen, which had been revealed to him in the heavens, Christ's cross.] The sentence, which is quite impossible to translate into modern English without losing the complex artistry of the word-order, is an epitome of Christian kingship as Cynewulf and his contemporaries saw it. Juxtaposing Constantine's name with that of Christ and the cross, Constantines, Cristes rode, and placing it before tireadig cyning and after the series of epithets, he is able to suggest how the time-honored values of Germanic kingship are ‘blessed with victory’ through the agency of Christ's cross.Google Scholar

43 Oswald and Oswiu were already Christians when the cross of victory intervened decisively in their lives, but in each case it enormously strengthened their faith and zeal in the Christian cause (Bede, , Ecclesiastical History, 3.3, 24 [Colgrave & Mynors 218, 292]).Google Scholar

44 Anderson 118, who refers also to DuBois, M. M., Les éléments latins dans la poésie religieuse de Cynewulf (Paris 1942) 128. Cf. also my dissertation, ‘Wisdom and Bondage: An Interpretation of Cynewulf's Elene’ (Harvard 1973) 24-34.Google Scholar

45 ‘It is as the emperor's surrogate that Elene undertakes the physical jouney to Jerusalem’ (Anderson 118).Google Scholar

46 E.g., ‘caseres mæg’ (330); ‘wiÐ Ϸam casere’ (416); ‘caseres bodan’ (551); ‘caseres mæg’ (669).Google Scholar

47 Holder 12.Google Scholar

48 Ambrose, in his version of the Invention (Oratio de obitu Theodosii, in PL 16.1385ff., extracted in Holder 45-46), sees in the bridle-nails a symbol of the union of Empire and Church, an emblem of the Christian faith which turned the emperors from persecutors into supporters of the Christian community. More complex and subtle allegorical readings of the bridle in Elene have been proposed by Campbell, Jackson J., ‘Cynewulf's Multiple Revelations’ 272–74, and Hermann, John P., ‘The Theme of Spiritual Warfare’ 121, who see the holy bridle as an allegory of the sermo Dei and of the self-discipline the secular emperor must exert in his governance of the state and in his journey toward salvation. It is difficult for me to see any of this in the bellicose verses of the Elene; certainly there is nothing in the poem's portrait of the emperor that suggests he is in need of self-discipline. The bridle which Elene sends to her son is a wæpen æt wigge, nothing more or less.Google Scholar

49 Cross, , ‘The Ethic of War’ 273.Google Scholar

50 Acts 7.45; 13.19.Google Scholar

51 Cross, , ‘The Ethic of War’ 276. Cf. also Pope Hadrian's heartfelt wish that Charlemagne might do to the Hungarians as Moses did to the Egyptians at the Red Sea (see above, p. 173 and n. 37).Google Scholar

52 Holder 1, 16.Google Scholar

53 Stepsis, & Rand, , ‘Contrast and Conversion’ 274–75, follow Greenfield in explaining how Cynewulf is at pains to depict the angel's coming in terms of light dispelling darkness; Campbell associates this symbolism with the recurring theme of revelation and illumination (‘Cynewulf's Multiple Revelations’ 259). It is worth pointing out that Cynewulf's Constantine sees a very solid reliquary cross made of gold and jewels, whereas the Latin version's is more obviously symbolic of illumination (ex lumine claro constitutum), which is closer to the account of Eusebius/Rufinus, Historia ecclesiastica 9.9; edd Schwartz, E. and Mommsen, T., Eusebius Werke (GCS 2.2; Leipzig 1903-8) II 2.827-29. Cynewulf may have been influenced by the Dream of the Rood or by actual cross reliquaries. Certainly the description in Elene 88-92 anticipates that of 1022-26, where Elene has the wooden cross bejeweled and gilded, and placed in a silver casket. Modern critics in their preference for spiritual symbols over material objects disregard the tremendous value, spiritual and emotional, attached to cross relics and their splendid containers during the early Middle Ages. Such splinters of the lignum vitae were, in effect, pieces of God. For a scholarly study of the dispersal of the pieces of the true cross, see Frolow, A., La Relique de la Vraie Croix: Recherches sur le développement d'un culte (Archives de l'Orient 7; Paris 1961), and the companion volume, Les Reliquaires de la Vraie Croix (Archives de L'Orient 8; Paris 1965) especially 241ff., on the virtual identity, in the minds of many devotees of the cross cult, of the pieces of the cross and Christ Himself.Google Scholar

54 Bosworth-Toller, (Northcote Toller, T., ed., An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary …. [Oxford 1898]) gives ‘intercede’ as meaning I of Ϸingian and reserves the legal, secular connotations for meaning II: viz., ‘to settle with, make terms….’ Numerous glosses are cited in support of this latter interpretation, as well as various laws, and also Beowulf 470, Christ 616. The cognates in Old Saxon and Old High German carry strong legal connotations and lead one to the conclusion that the basic meaning of the verb is ‘to plead a cause, bring forward a suit, come to terms,’ and this in fact is the meaning offered by the OED. ‘Intercede’ in the theological sense can only be a secondary meaning, a natural outgrowth of the primary sense which has its roots in the tribal legal customs of the Germanic peoples. The noun Ϸingere means ‘advocate,’ ‘legal representative,’ ‘one who speaks in a situation of law.’ The noun upon which both the verb and the functional noun were based is, of course, Ϸing, the judicial assembly of the tribe.Google Scholar

55 The same phrase, ongean Ϸingode, occurs in Genesis A 1009, where the angel of God accuses Cain of murdering Abel and pronounces sentence on him. The phrase gean Ϸingode, ‘put the case against him,’ is appropriate to the occasion, the first judicial post mortem. Cf. also Guthlac A 239, where Guthlac replies (ongean Ϸingode) to the threats of the demons. The situation is one of accusation and counter-accusation, claim and counter-claim regarding rightful possession of the grene beorgas (232). The demons in fact use the word gemot to characterize their encounters with Guthlac (236), thus reinforcing the general impression of a judicial struggle.Google Scholar

56 E.g. Genesis, 9.9; 15.18; 17.2,7ff.; Exodus 6.2-5; 34.10ff. The covenant is implied, if not mentioned specifically, in various similar episodes, e.g., Genesis 12.3; 22.16-19; 27.27-30. Much of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy concerns the covenant and its legalities, which constitute a massive addendum to the simple law of circumcision required of Abraham as the symbol of his part in the covenant.Google Scholar

57 ‘… Ϸæt Ϸær ænig mon / wordum ne worcum wære ne bræce …’ (1099-1100).Google Scholar

58 Ed. Krapp, G. P., The Junius Manuscript (New York & London 1931). Subsequent citations of these poems are from this edition.Google Scholar

59 In my opinion, he was conscious of the parallel. As is explained below (pp. 192ff.), comparisons of Constantine and Moses, and of the Tiber and the Red Sea, were already part of the cross tradition in the late 4th century. The redactor or composer of the Inventio Sanctae Crucis / Acta Cyriaci has made the biblical parallel more appropriate and less forced by substituting northern barbarians on the Danube for Maxentius, the rival emperor whom Constantine defeated historically at the Milvian Bridge in a.d. 312. The barbarians are more comparable to the Egyptians or to Abraham's five northern kings, and the omission of Maxentius suppresses the fact that Constantine came to power through an act of personal ambition and civil war by leading Roman troops against the city of Rome.Google Scholar

60 E.g., Widsith 6, where Ealhhilde, an Anglian princess, is said to have been married to Eormonric, the Goth, and to have proved herself fælre freoϷuwebban, a faithful peace weaver. Cf. also Beowulf 1942, concerning the enigmatic ModϷryÐo whose violent behavior was unbecoming in a freoÐuwebbe. Google Scholar

61 The idea of a peace-treaty or covenant between men on the one hand, and the angels and their king on the other, is found also in Cynewulf's Ascension or Christ II (edd. Krapp, George Philip and Van Kirk Dobbie, Elliott, The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records III; New York & London 1936), lines 581-84: Sib sceal gemæne englum ond ældum a forÐ heonan wesan wideferh. Wær is ætsomne godes ond monna, gæsthalig treow,… [Henceforth there will be peace for ever between angels and men. There is a covenant between God and men, a sacred pledge ….] Google Scholar

According to Cook, A. S., ed., The Christ of Cynewulf (1900; rptd. Freeport, New York 1970) 75, commenting on the image of Christ the corner-stone in Christ I, line 11, the reconciliation of men and angels was habitually associated, in early medieval exegesis, with the covenantal integration of Jews and Gentiles into the new Israel, the body of Christ. This is, of course, the theme of Cynewulf's Elene. Google Scholar

62 OE Daniel 10-11 (ed. Krapp, , Junius Manuscript).Google Scholar

63 Ambrose, , De fide 1 (PL 16.528-29): ‘Nam et Abraham trecentos decern et octo duxit ad bellum, et ex innumeris tropaea hostibus reportavit; signoque Dominicae crucis et nominis, quinque regum victriciumque turmarum subacto robore ….’ Cf. Bede, , In Genesim 3.14.14: ‘Erant quippe trecenti decern et octo, quo nimirum numero signum uictoriosissimae crucis et nomen saluatoris nostri Iesu Christi … designatur, siquidem apud Graecos trecenti per tau litteram notantur, quae in crucis figuram aptatur …. Decern uero et octo apud eos per I et H, quae in nomine Iesu primae sunt litterae, notantur; et ideo cum trecenti decem et octo grece notantur, non multum distat ab eo ut crux Iesu legi possit.’ Ed. Jones, Charles W., Bedae venerabilis opera (CCL 118-A; Turnhout 1967) II 1.187.Google Scholar

64 ‘Virga vero, per quam Aegyptus corripitur, Pharao superatur, crux Christi est, per quam mundus vincitur et princeps huius mundi triumphatur’ (PL 91.301).Google Scholar

66 ‘Uere dignum, etc…. eterne deus. Et precipue in die ista, in qua filii tui unigeniti a Iudeis abditus gloriosus inuentus est triumphus. Qui protoplasti facinus, per ligni uetiti gustum humano generi deriuatum, per idem lignum crucis, in quo nostra secum affixit delicta, pro cruore detersit cuius tipum uirga tenuit in separandis aequoris undis, et uiam populo duce moyse preparauit securam, ut sicut aspera mors populis ligno deducta cucurrit, ita et uita eterna per lignum remearet.’ Das fränkische Sacramentarium Gelasianum, ed. Mohlberg, 114–15.Google Scholar

66 Ed. Wilson, H. A. (Henry Bradshaw Society 11; London 1896) 173.Google Scholar

67 Exodus 14.10,13; Holder 1, 16.Google Scholar

68 It is appropriate to point out here that there are a number of specific verbal parallels, as well as a general similarity, between the OE Exodus's account of the Red Sea episode and Cynewulf's account of Constantine vs. the Huns. Claes Schaar, in his Critical Studies on the Cynewulf Group (Lund Studies in English 17; Lund 1949) 253–55, went so far as to assert that Cynewulf borrowed directly from the older poem, as well as from the OE Genesis A's account of Abraham's victory over the five kings. Although with our new oral-formulaic awareness we can no longer countenance such an assertion, the verbal echoes do deserve closer attention. It emerges from Donald K. Fry's study of themes and type-scenes of Elene (see above, n. 3) that Elene, Exodus, and Genesis together form a rhetorical tradition of battle poetry (to which the later Judith is also indebted) which is quite distinct from that of Beowulf, Maldon, and Finnsburh. There is nothing in what we regard as the authentic secular heroic tradition to compare with the large-scale battle scenes of the religious group. My own belief is that Cynewulf did not learn how to embellish a battle-scene from the general poetic store of the Anglo-Saxon heroic tradition, but learned it rather from the relatively new biblical poetry. It seems to me likely that the people who heard his Elene for the first time would have recognized the specifically biblical character of the opening episode from its stylistic echoes of vernacular biblical poems (similar if not identical to the extant Genesis A and Exodus) as well as from its narrative parallels with the Red Sea episode in the Latin Vulgate Exodus.Google Scholar

69 Cf. Exodus 12.36, and OE Exodus 385–590.Google Scholar

70 E.g., lines 202-10. See above, pp. 168–69 and n. 22.Google Scholar

71 ‘Mittens autem rex Constantinus ad Silvestrium episcopum urbis Romae fecit uenire eum et catezizans eum fidem Christianorum et omnia dei mysteria docuit et baptizauit eum in nomine Ihesu Christi ….’ Holder 2, 16. The Old English does not have Constantine send for Sylvester; rather it merely says that those who preached to the emperor did so swa fram Siluestre / lærde wæron. Æt Ϸam se leodfruma / fulwihte onfeng & Ϸæt forÐ geheold (190-92). If æt Ϸam in line 191 refers to the antecedent disciples of Sylvester, rather than to the exiled bishop himself, then one must conclude that Cynewulf has deliberately and neatly avoided any direct contact between emperor and bishop, and between the story of the cross and the legend of Sylvester.Google Scholar

72 Vita Silvestri , ed. Mombritius, B., Sanctuarium II 512–13.Google Scholar

73 ‘Iudas autem accipiens incorruptionis baptismum in Christo Ihesu de precedentibus signis ostensus est fidelis. Commendauit eum regina episcopo qui in illo tempore erat qui baptizauit eum in Christo Ihesu.’ Holder 10, 26. Cf. Elene 1032-42: Swylce Iudas onfeng æfter fyrstmearce fulwihtes bæÐ, ond geclænsod wearÐ Criste getrywe, lifwearde leof. His geleafa wearÐ fæst on ferhÐe, siϷϷan frofre gast wic gewunode in Ϸæs weres breostum, bylde to bote. He Ϸæt betere geceas, wuldres wynne, ond Ϸam wyrsan wiÐsoc, deofolgildum, ond gedwolan fylde unrihte æ. Him wearÐ ece rex, meotud milde, god, mihta wealdend. [In the same way, Judas received the bath of baptism, after a period of time, and true to Christ, dear to the guardian of life, he was made clean. His faith became fast in his heart, after the spirit of comfort made its dwelling place in the man's breast and urged him to repentance. He chose the better, the joy of glory, and resisted the worse, idolatry, and destroyed error, the unrighteous law. The eternal king, the measurer, wielder of powers, became mild and kind toward him.] Google Scholar

74 Holder 2, 16.Google Scholar

75 Cf. of Orleans, Jonas, De institutione laicali 1.13: ‘Quid ergo est converti? Si his omnibus terga vertitis, et studio ac mentis sollicitudine verbo Dei operam detis, in lege ejus die ac nocte meditemini: hoc est conversum esse ad Dominum’ (PL 106.148).Google Scholar

76 Commentarioli in Psalmos , ed. de Lagarde, Paul, S. Hieronymi Presbyteri opera, Pars I, Opera exegetica (CCL 72; Turnhout, 1959) I 179.Google Scholar

77 CyÐan with the widely attested meaning of ‘proclaim, make known, disclose’ appears several times in Elene (e.g., 446, 540, 566, 588, 607, etc.). It also appears in Elene with the less frequent meaning of ‘exhibit, manifest, reveal,’ where what is revealed is a personal quality or inner virtue (e.g., 558, 595). Cf. Beowulf 2695, ellen cyÐan, and Daniel 96-97, wisdom … cyÐan. Google Scholar

78 PL 106.287.Google Scholar

79 2 Kings 5-8; 1 Par. 11-16.36.Google Scholar

80 3 Kings 5-8.21; 1 Par. 28-2 Par. 5.11.Google Scholar

81 Holder 10, 26.Google Scholar

82 De templo 1, ed. Hurst, D., Opera (CCL 119-A; Turnhout 1969) II 2A.148–57. Cf. Maurus, Rhabanus, Comment. in libros IV Regum, especially Lib. 3 (PL 109.133-34).Google Scholar

83 Maurus, Rhabanus, Comment, in libros IV Regum, PL 109.135; Bede, , De templo 1, ed. Hurst, 158. Google Scholar

84 Elene 1254: swa ic on bocum fand. Google Scholar

85 ‘Der erste christliche Kaiser gehört zu den grossen Männern, die nicht nur als geschichtliche Persönlichkeiten, sondern auch als symbolische Gestalten im Gedächtnis der Nachwelt weiterlebten. Durch seine Entscheidung war die in der Kirche verkörperte Civitas Dei eins geworden mit dem Imperium Romanum. Die christliche Geschichtstheologie verband sich daher aufs engste mit der römischen Reichsidee. Constantin war in dieser Sicht nicht nur der Nachfolger des Augustus, nicht nur der Heros Ktistes der Nova Roma am Bosporus, sondern zugleich auch der erste Herrscher des neuen Gottesvolkes, als solcher der Nachfolger der Führergestalten und Könige Israels und wie Moses durch eine besondere Stellung in der Heilsgeschichte ausgezeichnet’ (Ewig, Eugen, ‘Das Bild Constantins des Grossen in den ersten Jahrhunderten des abendländischen Mittelalters,’ Historisches Jahrbuch 75 [1956] 1).Google Scholar

86 Becker, Erich, ‘Konstantin der Grosse, der “neue Moses,” die Schlacht am Pons Milvius und die Katastrophe am Schilfmeer,’ Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 31 (1910) 165ff.Google Scholar

87 Ewig, , ‘Das Bild Constantins’ 8.Google Scholar

88 There are twenty examples of such sarcophagi at Aries and Rome, in addition to others at Ntmes, Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, and Metz (Becker, , ‘Konstantin der Grosse,’ 612).Google Scholar

89 Ibid. 169–70.Google Scholar

90 Ibid. 164ff. Google Scholar

91 Edd. Schwartz, & Mommsen, , Eusebius Werke (n. 53 above) 828–31. Rufinus‘ Latin version, edited by Mommsen, is on the odd-numbered pages, facing Schwartz's text of Eusebius’ Greek.Google Scholar

92 Regarding the Arian blot on Constantine's record, see Ewig, , ‘Das Bild Constantins’ 1–3.Google Scholar

98 9.9.5, edd. Schwartz, & Mommsen, , Eusebius Werke II 2.829–31.Google Scholar

94 Ibid. 1.4.13-15, p. 45: ‘certum namque est, quod sicut ille credens ei qui sibi apparuit iustificatus est et paternis superstitionibus repudiatis ac spretis dei veri praecepta fide atque operibus exsecutus est et per hoc ei dicitur: quia benedicuntur in te omnes tribus et omnes gentes terrae, ita et Christiani fide atque operibus id agant, ut paternae superstitionis errore depulso sequantur deum, quern secutus Abraham, et ex simili fide eius justificentur, sicut justificatus est Abraham.’ Google Scholar

96 Ibid. 9.8.15, p. 827. The ‘passage in Genesis’ is actually a conflation of Exodus 10.21-23 and Ps. 89.6.Google Scholar

96 On Rufinus' currency in Anglo-Saxon England, see Ogilvy, J. D. A., Books Known to the English, 597-1016 (Cambridge, Mass. 1967) 236. On the Jarrow Cross slab, see Henderson, , Early Medieval 216.Google Scholar

97 For example, see Bede's patently unenthusiastic paragraph (Eccles. Hist. 1.9 [Colgrave & Mynors 36-37]) in which he praises the virtues of Constantius, Constantine's father, but then goes on to describe the much more famous son simply as ‘filium ex concubina Helena,’ and to deal with his reign only in terms of the Arian heresy: ‘Cuius temporibus Arriana heresis exorta, et in Nicena synodo detecta atque damnata, nihilominus exitiabile perfidiae suae virus, ut diximus, non solum orbis totius sed et insularum ecclesiis aspersit.’ The other more flattering references to Constantine in the Ecclesiastical History (1.32, 5.16) are in quotations from other writers.Google Scholar

98 ‘Perhaps if we knew the Old Testament as well as the Carolingians did, we should find their royal activity less confusing.’ Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., ‘The Via Regia of the Carolingian Age,’ Trends in Medieval Political Thought, ed. Smalley, Beryl (Oxford 1965) 26. See also Kantorowicz, Ernst, Laudes Regiae: A Study in Liturgical Acclamations and Medieval Ruler Worship (University of California Publications in History 33; Berkeley 1942) 56-58, 62; Ullmann, Walter, The Carolingian Renaissance and the Idea of Kingship (The Birbeck Lectures 1968-69; London 1969) 44-50. Another scholar who has explored the rituals and symbolism of early medieval rulers, Percy Ernst Schramm, cites Charlemagne's marble throne at Aachen, which imitates that of Solomon, as an example of the contemporary tendency to think of Charlemagne in Old Testament terms ‘in den Gebetsformeln sowie in der Literatur dieser Jahrzehnte.’ Charlemagne himself was convinced, says Schramm, that he had been entrusted by God with a special mission like King David and his successors, in whom, as a result, the Frankish monarch recognized ‘nicht nur Vorbilder, sondern Vorläufer…. Insofern handelt es sich hier abermals um einen Fall der “Ansippung,” erleichtert durch die zeitgenössische Allegorese, für die Herstellung typologischer Beziehungen zwischen Gestalten aus der Zeit vor und nach Christus eine Selbstverständlichkeit war.’ Kaiser, Könige und Päpste: Gesämmelte Aufsätze zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, I. Von der Spätantike bis zum Tode Karls des Grossen (Stuttgart 1968) 211.Google Scholar

99 MGH: Epistolae III 480.Google Scholar

100 Ibid. 505, 552.Google Scholar

101 Capitularia regum Francorum 22, ed. Boretius, A. (MGH: Legum sectio 2; Hanover 1881) I 1.54.Google Scholar

102 See, for example, Alcuin's letters to Æthelred of Mercia and Æthelhard, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the sack of Lindisfarne in 793 (MGH Epp. IV 42-49), of which the following, with its implied comparison of the English church to the mystical vineyard of the Canticus Canticorum, is typical: 'Ecce ecclesia sancti Cuthberti sacerdotum Dei sanguine aspersa, omnibus spoliata ornamentis, locus cunctis in Brittannia venerabilior paganis gentibus datur ad depredandum…. Quis hoc non timet? Quis hoc quasi captam patriam non plangit? Vineam electam vulpes depredarunt [cf. Cant. 2.15, Ps. 79.8ff.], hereditas Domini data est populo non suo [cf. Joel 2.17]. Et ubi laus Domini, ibi ludus gentium. Festivitas sancta versa est in luctum [cf. Amos 8.10]' (p. 43).Google Scholar

103 See Kottje, Raymund, Studien zum Einfluss des Alten Testaments auf Recht und Liturgie des frühen Mittelalters (6.-8. Jahrhunderts), (Bonner Historische Forschungen 23; Bonn 1964) 28–30.Google Scholar

104 Ibid. 38.Google Scholar

105 Colgrave, Bertram, ed., Two Lives of St. Cuthbert (Cambridge 1940) 174 and 66. Charles W. Jones, in his Saints' Lives and Chronicles in Early England (Ithaca, N.Y. 1949) 54, remarks of Bede's vita Cuthberti that ‘no morsel of food is eaten in those Scottish scenes that was not eaten in Old Testament Palestine.’ Google Scholar

106 Colgrave, , Two Lives 99.Google Scholar

107 Gregorii Magni dialogi libri IV, ed. Moricca, Umberto (Fonti per la storia d'Italia; Rome 1924) 93.Google Scholar

108 Dialogi, ed. Moricca, 93.Google Scholar

109 ‘… Manifestum est melius dici Vitam Patrum quam Vitas: quia cum sit diversitas meritorum virtutumque, una tamen omnes vita alit in mundo.’ Vitae Patrum, Prologus, PL 71.1009-10. The Pauline doctrines of the new covenant and the corpus mysticum are to be found throughout the apostle's writings, but see, e.g., Eph. 2.11-19, Col. 1.24, Gal. 2.20, 1 Cor. 12.4-27. On the ‘communion of saints’ see Jones, , Saints' Lives 57–64.Google Scholar

110 MGH: Epp. III 587, and see above, nn. 99-101.Google Scholar

111 On the ‘ambiance biblique’ of early medieval hagiography, see further de Gaiffier, B., ‘Miracles bibliques et vies de Saints,’ Études critiques d'hagiographie et d'iconologie (Subsidia hagiographica 43; Brussels 1967) 60. See also the following papers in La Bibbia nell' alto medioevo (Settimane di studio del centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo 10; Spoleto 1963): Leclercq, Jean, ‘L’Écriture sainte dans l'hagiographie monastique du haut moyen âge' 103-28; Lehmann, Paul, ‘Der Einfluss der Bibel auf frühmittelalterliche Geschichtsschreiber’ 129-40; Ullmann, Walter, ‘The Bible and the Principles of Government in the Middle Ages’ 181-227; Schramm, Percy Ernst, ‘Das Alte und das Neue Testament in der Staatslehre und Staatssymbolik des Mittelalters’ 229-55.Google Scholar

112 E.g., in Gen. 17.2-8.Google Scholar

113 See the articles, cited in full in n. 7 above, by Campbell, Hill, Regan, and Whatley.Google Scholar

114 See above, n. 6, for reference.Google Scholar

115 A preliminary, much shorter version of this paper was presented at the Annual Conference of the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo in May 1977, as part of a panel on Cynewulf's Elene, chaired by Michael Masi. The other panelists were Earl Anderson, Thomas D. Hill, and Catharine Regan, to all of whom I am grateful for the stimulus of their work on Cynewulf and his age, and for their encouragment of my own. I am particularly grateful to Professor Hill for reading a late draft of this article and for making many helpful suggestions.Google Scholar