Soldier saints and holy warriors: Warfare and sanctity in Anglo-Saxon England Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Damon, John Edward, 1951- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 03:55:51 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282648 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the teTCt directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter &ce, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ® GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by_ John Edward Damon entitled Soldier Saints and Holy Warriors: Warfare and Sanctity in Anglo-Saxon England and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy cT- p. Date Date Date Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. y. 3 - Dissertation Director Date 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the help and encouragement I received from my professors, the members of my dissertation committee, and other scholars in the field. The idea for this dissertation first took shape during my two years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I researched various aspects of this topic under the direction of professors David Ganz, Theodore Leinbaugh, Patrick O'Neill, Richard Pfafl^ Joseph Wittig, and, especially, Edward D. Kennedy. At the University of Arizona, professors Carl Berichout, Roger Dahood, and Sigmund Eisner not only provided me with a solid background in medieval literature and culture but also extended me their personal mentorship over the entire course of my graduate studies, culminating in their service on ray dissertation committee and the hours they spent reading and critiquing my work. In particular, my dissertation director, Carl Berkhout, held me to a rigorous and exacting standard of scholarship that I hope to have, in some measure, matched. I would also like to acknowledge Jane Welch Williams for her support and encouragement and, most importantly, Alan Bernstein without whose guidance in the historical aspects of my subject this dissertation would never have been completed. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the fortitude and loving support of my family in this long and arduous journey: my parents Paul and Jinx Damon, my father-in-law George Simmons, my sons Ned and Will, and most of all my wife Mariana. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 7 L SULPICIUS'S VITA SANCTIMARTINI PsND ANGLO-SAXON HAGIOGRAPHY Introduction 9 The 5a/zcf/A/amm of SuIpiciusSeverus 16 Anglo-Saxon Versions of the Life of Martin 35 Aldhelm's Prose and Poetic Versions of De Virginitate 38 Alcuin's "Scriptum de Vita S. Martini Turonensis" 40 The Old English Martyrology 47 The Anonymous Homily on the Life of Martin 52 /€Ifric's Two Versions of Martin's Life 63 The Emerging Pattern 79 II. HOLY KINGSHIP: ANGLO-SAXON SANCTIFICATION OF WARFARE Introduction 83 King Edwin in the Life of Gregory the Great 92 Tropes in the Cult of Martyred Warrior Kings 100 King Edwin in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica 113 King Oswald in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica 137 Oswine, Bede's Last Holy King 161 The Cult of Warrior Kings 169 III. EARTHLY COMBAT AND SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION Introduction. 171 Royal Transformations 178 Spiritual Transformation of Thegns 190 Forms of Spiritual Transformation 194 Bishop Wilfrid and King Cadwalla. 200 Bede's Warning 235 IV. SAINT GUTHLAC, SPIRITUAL WARRIOR Introduction 238 Earthly Warfare in Felix's Vita Sancti Guthlaci 243 Spiritual Warfare in Felix's Vita Sancti Guthlaci 267 King ^thelbald's Spiritual Transformation 276 Vernacular Accounts of Guthlac's Life and Their Chronology 293 GuthlacB 299 The Old English Martyrology and the Old English Guthlac 311 The Vercelli Guthlac Homily 339 Guthlac A 344 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS -- Continued Changing Perceptions of Warfare and Sanctity 370 V. ALCUIN AND ABBO; CULTURAL CROSS-POLLINATION AND THE ANGLO- SAXON CULT OF KINGS Introduction 373 Edwin in Alcuin's Versus de Patribus Regibus et Sanctis Euboricensis Ecclesiae 384 Oswald in Alcuin's Versus de Patribus Regibus et Sanctis Euboricensis Ecclesiae 405 Abbo of Fleury's Passio Sancti Eadmundi. 426 VI. .€LFRIC AND THE ANGLO-SAXON HOLY WARRIOR Introduction 479 The Form and Content of iEIfnc's Lives of Saints 497 Violence £ind Warfare in the Lives of Saints 531 The Passions of Saints Alban and Edmund 542 Judas Machabeus and the Order of Bellatores 556 i^lfric's New Synthesis and Crusading Ideology 601 VII. LAY SANCTITY AND ERA'S END Introduction 605 Athelstan 'Half-K.ing' and Athelwine 'Dei Amicus' 614 Ealdorman Byrhtnoth and his Peers 618 Waltheof and Harold, Anglo-Saxon Saints in a Norman England 636 Conclusion 643 REFERENCES 650 7 ABSTRACT It is common but too simplistic to say that Old English literature shows the unconscious blending of the traditional Germanic heroic ethos and the early Christian aversion to war. The matter is more complex. Throughout the Latin West, Christian perceptions of a tension between sanctity and warfare changed over the period from the arrival of Roman Christianity in England (AD 597) to the period following the Norman Conquest of 1066. Christian disdain for and rejection of warfare (at times no more than nominal) gave way eventually to active participation in wars considered "just" or "holy." Anglo-Saxon literature, in both Latin and Old English, documented this changing ethos and also played a significant role in its development. The earliest extant Anglo-Saxon hagiographic texts featured a new type of holy man, the martyred warrior king, whose role in spreading Christianity in England culminated in a dramatic death in battle fighting enemies portrayed by hagiographers as bloodthirsty pagans. During the same period, other Anglo-Saxon writers depicted warriors who transformed themselves into soldiers of Christ, armed only with the weapons of faith. These and later Anglo-Saxon literary works explored the intersection of violence and the sacred in often conflicting ways, in some instances helping to lead Christian spirituality toward the more martial spirit that would eventually culminate in Pope Urban IPs preaching of the First Crusade in 1095, but in other cases preserving intact many early Christians' radical opposition to war. Aspects