-1- WOMEN AND SANCTITY: LIVES OF THE FEMALE SAINTS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH FROM CYNEWULF TO THE KATHERINE GROUP GOPA ROY Thesis submitted f or the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University College, London, April 1991. -2- ABSTRACT An important concern in these Lives is the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Virginity in particular plays a central part. The first part of this study examines the background to these concerns. The discussion is based on works by the Fathers, particularly St Augustine, and by English writers (Bede, Aldhelm and s€lfric). Illustrations are taken from the Old English Lives. The following areas are covered: the disobedience of the flesh, of which sexual lust was one symptom; the Christian view of virginity as a means of recovering the obedience of the flesh and restoring the harmonious relationship between man and God lost by the fall; the qualities, physical and spiritual, required of a virgin; the powers attributed to virginity in the Lives of virgin saints. The last part of the section discusses the reasons for the greater emphasis given to virginity in women than in men, and examines the degree to which such reasons influenced the Lives produced in England before the Conquest. The second part consists of studies, in the light of the foregoing, of the following Old English Lives: Cyriewuif's Jullana; Eugenia; Euphrosyne; Margaret; Mary of Egypt. Part three traces developments in spirituality and changes in attitudes towards women which influenced the Lives of the Katherine Group. The following are amongst the works discussed: the Liber Confortorius of Goscelin; works by Anseim and the Cistercians; Hall Melôhad and the Ancrene Wisse. This Is followed in part four by studies of the three Lives of the Katherine Group. The Appendix provides textual and bibliographical information about the Lives which are the subject of the study. -3- TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 5 Prefatory note 5 Abbreviations 6 Introduction 9 PART I: VIRGINITY Chapter 1: Flesh and spirit 13 2: VirgInity and marriage 27 3: On being a virgin 35 4: Virginity and power 63 5: Virginity and women 122 PART II: OLD ENGLISH LIVES Chapter 6: Cynewuif's Juliana 162 7: &lfric's 'Life of St Eugenia' 188 8: The 'Life of St Euphrosyne' 217 9: The Life of St Margaret' 230 10: The Life of St Mary of Egypt' 250 PART III: FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE KATHERINE GROUP Chapter 11: Goscelln of St Bertin and Anseim of Canterbury 297 12: The Continent in the twelfth century 323 13: England in the twelfth end early thirteenth centuries 340 14: Developments in spirituality 369 15: Developments in feminine Imagery 391 -4- PART IV: THE LIVES OF THE KATHERINE GROUP Chapter 16: St luliene 409 17: St Marherete 426 18: St Katerine 440 Appertdlx: texts, manuscripts, studies 475 Bibliography and references 496 -5- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to the following for their help: Geoffrey Needham, Mark Bateson, Sue Burch, Lynne Grundy, Karl Hubke, David McDougall, Ian McDougall, and my parents. PREFATORY NOTE Unless otherwise stated, Latin texts are quoted as printed by the editors. Where available, printed translations of Latin texts are also quoted. Where no translations are available, I have provided translations or paraphrases. Biblical references are to the Vulgate, and quotations are from the Douay-Rheims translation. Unless otherwise stated, Old and early Middle English texts are quoted as printed by the editors, except that the letter 'wynn' has been normalised to 'w'; and Skeet's hyphens in Lifric's Lives of Saints have been omitted. In quotations from early Middle English texts, 3 represents lower case yogh'. -6- AB8REV1ATION AASS: Acta Sanctorum, cci. 3. Bollandus et al. (Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, 1643-1894) Assmann: AngelsSchslsche Homillen und !Ieiligenleben ed. Bruno Assmann, Bibliothek der angeischsichen Prose 3 (Kassel, 1889; repr. with a supplementary introduction by Peter Clemoes, Darmstadt, 1964). References are to homily and line numbers AW: Ancrene Wisse: Edited from I Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 3. R. R. Tolkien, EETS 249 (London, 1961). References are to folio and line numbers BHL: Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (Brussels, 1898-1901). Supplement, Subsidia Hagiographica 12 (Brussels, 1911) BT: An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary cci. Joseph Bosworth & T. Northcote Toiler (Oxford, 1898). With a supplement by Toiler (Oxford, 1921). Enlarged Addenda and Corrigenda to the Supplement by Alistair Campbell (Oxford, 1972) Butler: Alban Butler, Butler's Lives of the Saints, 2nd edItion, supplemented by H. Thurston & D. Attwater, 4 vols (London, 1956) CCCM: Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis (Turnhout, 1966-) CCSL: Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (Turnhout, 1953-) CH: Homilies of Lifric ed. Benjamin Thorpe, 2 vols (London, 1844-46) CSEL: Corpus Scriptorum Ecciesiasticorum Latinorurn (Vienna, 1866-) DNB: Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 1917-) EElS: Early English Text Society Ehwald: Aidhelmi Opera Omnia, ed. R. Ehwald, I4GH Auctores Antiquissimi 15 (Berlin, 1919) EME: Early Middle English HE: Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People ed. & trans. Bertram Coigrave & R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969) -7- HM: Bali Meiôhad ed. Belle Mlllett, EETS 284 (London, 1982). References are to page and line numbers Ker: Neil R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957). References are to catalogue and article numbers LC: 'The Liber Confortetorius of Goscelin of Saint Bertin', ed. C. H. Talbot, Analecta Monastica 3, Studia Anselmiana 37 (1955), 1-117, Rome. Leclerq & Roche is: S. Leclerq, C. H. Talbot, H. II Roche is, S. Bernardi Opera, B vols (Rome, 1957-1977) Lewis & Short: A Latin Dictionary, Chariton 1. Lewis & Charles Short (Oxford, 1879) LS: Lifric's Lives of Saints ed. Walter W. Skeet, EElS 76, 82, 94, 114 (London 1881-1900; repr. in 2 vols 1966). References are to homily and line numbers MGH: Monumenta Germaniae Historice Mombritius: Sanctuarium seu Vitae Senctorum, ed. B. Mombritlus (2nd ed., 2 vols, Paris, 1910) NCE: New Catholic Encyclopaedia (New York, London, etc., 1967) ODCC: Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. F. L. Cross & E. A. Livingstorie, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1974) CE: Old English OEM: Old English Martyrology Ott: 3. H. Ott, Ober die Queilen der Mel Jigenleben in Lifrics Lives of Saints I (Helle, 1892) PL: Patrologia Latina ed. S. P. Migne (Paris, 1844-64) PM: Anselm's Prayers and Meditations ed. Benedicta Ward (Harmondsworth, 1973) SC: Sources Chrétiennes (Paris, 1940-) Schmitt: F.S. Schmitt, Sancti Anselmi Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi Opera Omnla, 6 vols (London 1938-1961) -8- Skeet: W. W. Skeet, ed., Lifric's Lives of Saints (See LS above). References are to volume and page numbers Sources: Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: A Trial Version, ed. Frederick M. Biggs, Thomas D. Hill, Paul E. Szarmach, with the assistance of Karen Hammond (New York, 1990) Wace & Schaff: Henry Wace & Philip Schaff, editors, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Oxford & New York, 1890-1902). References are to volume and page numbers For further abbreviations used in the Appendix, see below, p. 495, note 3. -9- INTRODUCTION Saints have always been portrayed as ideal models of Christian conduct and belief,' and their Lives reflect, as one would expect, the ideals and values of the period and milieu in which they were produced. The models of sanctity presented in the Lives of women saints no doubt express much that was regarded as worthy of commemoration and emulation in any holy person, whether a man or a woman; but they often also reveal particular emphases and interests which can be connected with the fact that the saints presented are female rather than male. The purpose of this study is to identify what characterised the sanctity of the female saints whose lives are extant in Old and in early Middle English, and to attempt to understand what lay behind the particular images of sanctity presented in them. Such an investigation requires attention not only to the spiritual background of the Lives, but also to changing attitudes towards women, and to literary matters; for the way in which a female saint is presented may be affected by prevailing attitudes towards women; and influenced by 'literary' images of the feminine as expressed, for example In exegetical writings, such as in allegorical interpretations of the Song of Songs. Factors such as these can help us to understand the nature of female sanctity as it was conceived at various times, and the differences we find in the presentation of the same or similar saints in versions of their Lives produced at different times. In the case of the Lives with which this study Is concerned, comparisons with their sources (where this is possible) show that - 10 - whereas some of the Old English Lives are fairly straightforward literal translations of earlier Latin versions, significant modifications have been made to others. 3 When we look at the period following the Conquest, we find that major changes in attitude and interest take place, which affect the presentation of the saints in the Katherine Group Lives. One of the most Important features of these Lives (and Indeed of Lives of women saints as a whole) is the emphasis on virginity found in them. The study therefore begins with an investigation of the background to, and possible reasons for, this emphasis, and discusses expressions of the theme in the Old English Lives. Those Lives which require separate treatment are then discussed individually: Cynewulf's Juliana, a poetic life, the earliest of the group, and a Life which can be read in terms of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit; &lfric's 'Life of Eugenia', which reveals interesting differences in its presentation of Eugenla's sanctity when compared with the Latin versions; Euphrosyne, a virgin saint, but not a martyr, and one who, like Eugenie, disguises herself as a man; Margaret, a virgin martyr who defeats a dragon; and Mary of Egypt, the only one of the group who is not a virgin, and who, as a repentant sinner, presents a model very different from that provided by virgin saints.