APOSTLES, APOSTOLICITY & APOCRYPHA: THE LITERARY RECEPTION AND TREATMENT OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND with a STUDY OF THE CULT OF ST. ANDREW Kevin R. Kritsch A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Ph.D. in the Department of English and Comparative Literature Chapel Hill 2014 Approved by: Patrick P. O’Neill Robert G. Babcock Edward Donald Kennedy Theodore Leinbaugh Joseph Wittig ©2014 Kevin R. Kritsch ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the literary reception and treatment of the twelve apostles in Anglo-Saxon England with an emphasis on the cult of St. Andrew. The dissertation is presented in two parts. Part I, entitled “Apostleship, Apostolicity and the Twelve in Anglo-Saxon England,” focuses on the notion of apostleship and how it was understood in Anglo-Saxon England with regard to the various essential aspects of the office such as missionary zeal, witness, right teaching, spiritual healing, ascetic living, and intercession. Part II, “The Cult of St. Andrew in Anglo-Saxon England,” offers a history and survey of St. Andrew as he appears in the Anglo-Saxon literary tradition across a variety of genres including historical, exegetical, calendrical, martyrological, liturgical, devotional and apocryphal narrative or verse. Incorporating evidence from both Anglo-Latin and Old English traditions, the study offers a well-rounded examination of the twelve apostles as they were venerated collectively and the first thorough survey of an apostle cult in the Anglo-Saxon Period. iii PREFACE Unpleólícre hit bið on lytlum scipe and on lytlum wætere, ðonne on miclum scipe and on miclum wætere The preceding quote, found in variant forms in the “Proverbs of Alfred” and the “Old English Distichs of Cato,” has long played in the back of my mind during work on this dissertation. Translated roughly as, “It is less risky to be in a small ship on a small body of water than in a large ship on a large body of water,” this bit of wisdom is good advice for any young scholar beginning in the field. If anything, I embarked with this dissertation on an immense ocean, and the subsequent process has been one of trying to find smaller, more manageable lakes to navigate. The doctoral research represented here is part of an ongoing, larger project to survey the cults of all twelve apostles in the literary evidence of Anglo-Saxon England, both Anglo- Latin and Old English. In its nascent stage, the dissertation began as a comparison between Anglo-Saxon and Irish traditions about all twelve apostles. The subject was understandably too vast, and, to my everlasting shame, the Irish were quickly jettisoned overboard. I hope to swing back and pick them up some day. Having acquired a smaller boat and setting out on a smaller body of water, I set out to survey the apostle cults in Anglo-Saxon England alone. Once again, finding myself lost at sea, all but Andrew were thrown overboard. Andrew has proven good company along the way, though both the boat and the body of water likely remain too large for a scholar just starting out. One could work one’s entire life on any one of the apostles and still feel that there is much left to say. iv The idea for the dissertation was born out of my initial forays into the study of Anglo- Saxon hagiography in its various forms ranging from epic verse narrative to homiletic renderings of apocryphal passiones. While reading such texts as the Old English Andreas or Ælfric’s numerous homilies, I was constantly drawn to questions regarding concepts of authority, apocryphal source materials, literary adaptation, and the rhetorical application of these various legends. More often than not, I found it difficult to quickly locate answers to my questions, particularly with regard to universal saints. Within the growing field of Anglo-Saxon hagiographical studies, much academic emphasis has been placed on peculiarly English saints such as Oswald, Swithun, Cuthbert and Guthlac. While the study of these more localized cults has produced both productive and enlightening discourse, it has so far eclipsed research into Anglo-Saxon participation in the cults of those saints more widely revered throughout Christendom. To a certain extent, such a trend is understandable, for local saints offer a vast deal of insight into the veneration and practices of individual religious communities, help scholars trace the development of regional or national identities, and prove invaluable in establishing provenance for liturgical manuscripts. As my interests began to focus increasingly on the more theologically significant Twelve, however, I found that the vital scholarship was prohibitively diffuse and oftentimes esoteric in emphasis. Upon reading Mary Clayton’s erudite book on the cult of the Virgin Mary in Anglo-Saxon England, I longed for a similar source for the apostles; one that could help the uninitiated trace the background, both orthodox and apocryphal, of the apostles’ cults and elucidate the nature of their reverence as found in the Anglo-Latin and Old English literary traditions. The production of a work that introduces the Anglo-Saxon understanding of apostles and traces one of the more significant apostles, St. Andrew, as he appears in all manner of genres represents a first step on the way to filling that desideratum. v The dissertation here is presented in two parts. Each part is rather self-contained and very different in both focus and aim, though attempts have been made to highlight salient points that tie them together wherever possible. Part I, entitled “Apostleship, Apostolicity and the Twelve in Anglo-Saxon England,” focuses on the notion of apostleship and how it was understood in Anglo-Saxon England. It is divided into sections based on various essential aspects of the office of apostle such as missionary zeal, witness, right teaching, spiritual healing, ascetic living, salvation, etc. Each section explores how the Anglo-Saxon Church interpreted a characteristic of apostleship and how the apostles influenced Anglo-Saxon life and thought by exemplifying that particular quality of their office. By and large, Part I focuses on the collective veneration of the Twelve and how they embodied each of these individual aspects. Consequently, a great deal of specific information about the employment and interpretation of individual apostles has been tabled for later research focusing on their respective cults. Part II offers a history and survey of St. Andrew as he appears in the Anglo-Saxon literary tradition across a variety of genres including historical, exegetical, calendrical, martyrological, liturgical, devotional and narrative. Because not every single reference made to Andrew in Anglo-Saxon England can, of course, be discussed, the section follows two main lines of inquiry. First it seeks to explore Andrew’s presence in the canonical texts of the Bible and the exegetical commentaries that elucidate upon his appearances there. The second line of inquiry focuses on the appearance of apocryphal materials related to Andrew and seeks to establish their influence and gradual intrusion upon the literary corpus. While every attempt at thoroughness with regards to Andrew has been made, I make no claims for comprehensiveness. Due to the central position occupied by the apostles within Christian faith and theology, the apostles are quite pervasive in the literature. Consequently, some comment about the scope vi and parameters of the dissertation are necessary. With regards to inclusion, a conscious decision was made to incorporate both Anglo-Latin and Old English sources. Latinate and vernacular traditions did not thrive in a vacuum and there was certainly cross-pollination occurring between the two. As a result, any well-rounded survey of the “Anglo-Saxon” understanding of apostleship or a certain apostle must necessarily look to both traditions in order to arrive at an accurate assessment. By way of exclusion, this dissertation focuses on the persons of the apostles, that is, the biographical details about the apostles including their deeds in canonical scripture, apocryphal acts, missions, passions, burials, and translation of their relics. This means that I have largely eschewed epigrapha and pseudepigrapha attributed to the apostles. On occasion, where the Pauline or Catholic Epistles are necessary to arrive at a clearer understanding of apostleship, their evidence is brought to bear. This is more often the case in Part I than in Part II. The advantage of choosing Andrew to study is that there are no canonical epistles attributed to him and no pseudepigrapha that had any influence on Anglo-Saxon England. What we know of Andrew stems entirely from the Bible and the apocryphal acta and passiones that were in circulation during the early Middle Ages. These texts are, of course, more than enough. Andrew, as we shall see, was somewhat peculiar among the Twelve for his especial veneration in Anglo-Saxon England and the wealth of apocryphal traditions circulating about him, including but not limited to the only vernacular epic dedicated to an apostle—the Old English Andreas. One last note should be made about the sources used in this study. The reader will doubtlessly notice, especially in Part I, the preponderance of evidence drawn from the venerable Bede and Ælfric of Eynsham. The reason for this is quite simple. These two authors, as exegetes and teachers, had the most to say about the apostles; hence their voices tend to rise to vii the top. We also have the advantage with these two authors that the vast majority of their works have appeared in reliable editions and are, thus, readily available to a graduate student with a good library and limited travel funds. This does not negate the fact, however, that relying primarily on Bede and Ælfric is not without its dangers.