HAGIOGRAPHY AND THE CULT OF SAINTS IN THE DIOCESE OF LIÈGE, C. 700-980 Matthew Zimmern A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 2007 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/358 This item is protected by original copyright Hagiography and the Cult of Saints in the diocese of Liège, c. 700-980 By Matthew Zimmern Submitted January 31st 2007 in partial fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy I, Matthew Zimmern, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 100, 000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. Date signature of candidate I was admitted as a research student in September 2002 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in September 2003; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2002 and 2007. Date signature of candidate I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date signature of supervisor In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration. Date signature of candidate Contents Chapters Page Numbers Abstract Acknowledgements Abbreviations Maps 1. Introduction 1-8 Part I: The Episcopal Hagiography of the diocese of Liège 2. The episcopal hagiography of Liège to the end of the eighth century 9-52 3. The later Lives of Lambert and the school of Liège, 900-920 53-75 Part II: Reform and the cult of saints 4. Tenth century reform 76-105 5. The hagiography of Gerard of Brogne’s monastic reform 106-143 Part III: Patronage, Protection and Identity 6. The ninth and tenth century hagiography of St Servatius 144-169 7. The history and hagiography of Stavelot-Malmédy, c. 800-980 170-210 8. The cult of saints in disputes and rivalries 211-246 9. Conclusion 247-251 Bibliography 252-264 Abstract This thesis takes the hagiographical texts written in the diocese of Liège between approximately 700 and 980 and examines them in their political, social and cultural context. It analyses the texts by paying particular attention to how the authors expressed their concerns about issues that were important to them through the medium of hagiography and the saints’ cults, the purposes for which the texts were employed and how these aims were reflected in the retelling of saints’ legends. By taking this approach, analysing a substantial body of valuable but under-studied source material over a period of three centuries, for an important region, it provides a new perspective on a range of issues, significant people and places. The regional approach helps to show the close interconnectedness between many of these people, places and texts, including those connections that exist over a period of centuries as well as those networks vital to early mediaeval society that existed between contemporaries. Close examination of the body of texts highlights the importance of the cult of saints at all levels of society and demonstrates the value and versatility of hagiography as a means of storytelling. Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to thank my supervisors, Julia Smith and Simon MacLean, Julia for getting me started on this topic and Simon for helping me bring it to a conclusion. I should also thank everybody in the department of mediaeval history at St Andrews; my examiners, Robert Bartlett and Paul Fouracre; the university libraries at St Andrews and Cambridge; Wolfert van Egmond, Marco Mostert and Katy Cubitt, for providing me with very useful advice and suggestions. Apologies to anybody I’ve missed. Finally, thanks to my family for all their support. Abbreviations Due to reasons of space, all book and article titles in the footnotes have been abbreviated. They can all be found in the bibliography, but some of the most important titles and series are abbreviated as follows: AB Analecta Bollandiana AASS Acta Sanctorum Folcuin, GAL Folcuin of Lobbes, Gesta Abbatum Lobiensium, ed. G.H. Pertz, MGH SS 4 (Hanover, 1841), pp. 52-74 Halkin & Roland, Chartes de Stavelot J. Halkin & C.G. Roland (ed.), Recueil des Chartes de l’abbaye de Stavelot-Malmédy (Brussels, 1909) Jonas, VH Jonas of Orléans, Vita Secunda Sancti Huberti et Translatio ejus ad monasterium Andaginense, ed. C. de Smedt, AASS November I, pp. 806-818 MGH - SS Monumenta Germaniae Historica - Scriptores - SSRM Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum - SSRG Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum MSH Miraculorum Sancti Huberti post mortem liber Primus, ed. C. de Smedt, AASS Nov. vol. I, pp. 819-823 MR Miracula Sancti Remaclii, AASS Sept. vol. I, pp. 696-721 PL Patrologia Latina Sermo de Adventu The Sermo de Adventu Sancti Eugenii, ed. D. Misonne, ‘La légende liturgique de la translation de saint Eugène de Saint-Denis a Brogne’, Revue Bénédictine 74 (1964), 98-110 TMP Einhard, Translatio et Miracula Sanctorum Marcellini et Petri, ed. G. Waitz, MGH SS XV vol. 1 (Hanover, 1888), pp. 239-264 VH Vita Huberti, ed. W. Levison, MGH SSRM VI (Hanover & Leipzig, 1913), pp. 483-496 Virtutes Eugenii Misonne, D., (ed.), ‘Les Miracles de saint Eugène à Brogne. Étude littéraire et historique. Nouvelle Édition’, Revue Bénédictine 76 (1966), 231-291 Vita Antiquiora Vita Antiquiora Sancti Servatii, ed. C. de Smedt, G. van Hoof & J. de Backer in ‘Sancti Servatii Tungrensis episcopi: Vitae Antiquiores tres’, Analecta Bollandiana 1 (1882), 84-111 VLV Vita Landiberti episcopi Traiectensis vetustissima, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SSRM, vol. 6 (Hanover & Leipzig, 1913), pp. 353-384 VR Vita Remaclii, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SSRM V (Hanover & Leipzig, 1910), pp. 88-108 The East Frankish Kingdom and its neighbours in the early tenth century (from Reuter, Germany in the Early Middle Ages, p. 329) Principal bishoprics and basilican monasteries of the Frankish kingdoms in the ninth century (From McKitterick, Frankish Kingdoms, p. 378) Principal monasteries of the Frankish kingdom, c. 817 (From Mckitterick, Frankish Kingdoms, p. 329) Introduction The recent study of early mediaeval hagiography and the cult of saints The Liège region was a very significant one in the period from approximately 700 to the end of the first millennium. It held the ancestral lands of the Carolingian family, located around modern day Liège itself and stretching as far as Aachen, the place that became the empire’s symbolic and ritual centre. The region remained one of the family’s central places throughout their rise to dominance at the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth centuries, and the break-up of their empire at the end of the ninth century. After the fall of the last Carolingian emperor Charles the Fat in 887, the region was contested by locally influential aristocratic families until it was absorbed into the Ottonian Empire in the middle third of the tenth century. As well as being, both metaphorically and physically, central in the political development of Frankish Europe, the Liège region was one of the main centres of Frankish cultural activity. The imperial chapel and court at Aachen were starting points and centres for the wide range of developments and projects known as the Carolingian Renaissance by modern historians. Despite the political fragmentation of the region until the Ottonians extended their authority over it, and the threat of Viking and Hungarian raiders to its ecclesiastical centres, the diocese of Liège remained a vibrant region at the forefront of developments in monasticism, literature, philosophy, and theology. This study will help to illuminate some of these developments, through the particular perspective of hagiography, a type of writing in which the authors of the diocese were particularly skilled and productive. The study of hagiography and the cult of saints among historians has been transformed during the last 25 years, and the starting point for the methods used in the modern study of hagiography was the work of Peter Brown, primarily in his The Cult of the Saints.1 Brown provided a range of approaches and attitudes to the study of the cult of the saints that had previously not been considered, and which have since become central to the study of what is now recognised as one of the most important phenomena in mediaeval religious and cultural life. Of the many important points he 1 Brown, The Cult of the Saints. 1 made in his work, one of the most important was that the cult of saints should not be seen merely as a manifestation of the worst kind of popular superstition. He argued instead that it was a complex and sophisticated form of devotion that did not engage merely ‘the masses’, but was also developed by, and played a central part in the lives of, some of the most prominent individuals of the age considered in the book, which focussed on the fourth to sixth centuries.