Saxon or European? Interpreting and Reinterpreting St Boniface

Boniface must have been at least forty when he left for Frisia in 716. 1 This is an age by which point most people's basic character and preconceptions have become established so that even if one considers the second phase of Boniface's career, when he worked in mainland Europe, to have been the most significant, one still needs to study his formative years in Wessex as Wynfrith in order to appreciate the baggage that he took with him when he left his native land. For the basic facts of his early life we are as dependent, as all previous historians who have looked into the matter have been, on the details provided by Willibald of Mainz in his Vita Bonifatii, composed at some point between 754 and 769, at the request of Lull, who was Boniface's successor as bishop of Mainz (754-85) and Megingoz, his disciple who became bishop of Würzburg (763-69). 2 It seems likely that Willibald also came from Wessex, and so would have been familiar with the general ambience in which Boniface had grown up, even though he does not seem to have known him personally. However, he was in a good position, as he states, to consult others who had known Boniface well, 3 though one should expect, as with all hagiography, that biographical realism will have been tempered by a certain idealism and any overall aims that lay behind the composition. Though no new specific details have come to light on Boniface's early life, there have been advances in our understanding of the kingdom of Wessex and the nature of the Anglo-Saxon church in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. It is the aim of this paper to re-examine aspects of Boniface's career in England in the light of current understanding of the Anglo-Saxon context in which he spent his formative years. 4

Early Medieval Europe, 2005

The 'vigorous rule ' of Bishop Lull: between Bonifatian mission and Carolingian church control

The American Historical Review, 1992

A companion to Boniface (Brills Companion to the Christian Tradition, Bd. 92), 2020

2 Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler, Bonifacius, oder Feyer des Andenkens an die erste christliche Kirche in Thüringen, bey Altenburga im Herzogtum Gotha (Gotha: 1812). 3 This was a common topic in religious paintings and etchings. See Bernhard Rode, "Bonifacius haut in Hessen einen Opferbaum um," 1781, pencil drawing, 47.7 x 36.5 cm. Vienna, Albertina Museum; see https://www.graphikportal.org/document/gpo00089353. Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, "Bonifatius fällt die Donareiche," after 1780, pencil drawing. Fulda, Vonderau Museum.

2022

The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons in Early Medieval England can be attributed to various factors, such as the role of monastics and monasteries, kings, and the Church hierarchy/Episcopacy. This dissertation argues that due to factors such as the geographical location of the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the most important factor for a kingdom's conversion to Christianity can vary. And that monasticism, while playing a key role in these conversions, cannot be wholly separated from the overall hierarchy and structure of the Catholic Church as some historians have attempted. Although monasticism achieved a great degree of success in converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, through its role in providing pastoral care to communities.

International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 2015

Though Eastern Christians generally regard the Western part of the Church to have split from Orthodoxy permanently in 1054, there have been calls by some to modify the date of this as regards the Anglo-Saxon Church. These Orthodox lay scholars and bishops argue that the Anglo-Saxon Church was more closely aligned with the Orthodox East rather than the Roman Catholic West, as evidenced by the canonisation of St Edward the Confessor and advocacy for the canonisation of King Harold II. This article questions these assertions by looking at the evidence provided by Anglo-Saxon connection to the Western Church, as well as the migration of Anglo-Saxons to Byzantium following the Battle of Hastings, as described in the Játvarðar Saga. It concludes by discussing what implications these findings have for the Orthodox Church in its canonisation of a technically non-Orthodox saint.

Saint lives, their bodies, and the development of cult were integral towards establishing Northumbrian ecclesiastical identity during the Anglo-Saxon period. In this article, I argue that the saint cults of Cuthbert and Oswald of Northumbria effectively established ecclesiastical identity through their relics, hagiographical accounts, and the promotion of their cults through kingly and lay interaction. While the ecclesiastical community regarded Cuthbert as a model of ascetic practice and contemplation, however, they viewed Oswald as a warrior king who died for his faith. Firstly, I examine the diffusion and distribution of saintly relics, which helped to create relationships between the saint and the individual, encouraging cult growth through miraculous occurrences and intimacy with the saint. Secondly, the clergy’s commission of hagiographical texts further supported the distribution of relics, benefitting the image of the saint and their church. Favourable portrayals of the saints, such as Bede’s interpretation of Oswald and Cuthbert, promoted their ecclesiastical centres and relics. Thirdly, regal and lay involvement enabled cult development, allowing for active involvement with the church and endowing the cults with wealth and authority. Through these three approaches in literature, history, and material culture, I illustrate how Cuthbert and Oswald helped to shape ecclesiastical identity in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria.

History and Anthropology, 2023

There was no holy king in Poland during the Middle Ages. Although the Piast polity belonged to the North-eastern European periphery (East-Central Europe and Scandinavia), where essentially all post- 1000 CE polities boasted dynastic martyred holy rulers of native origin, the Piasts never elevated a member of their kin to such a position. The present article takes this puzzling exception as a point of departure to advance the argument that the episcopal holy patron of Poland of Bohemian origin – St Adalbert (c. 956– 997) – may in many regards be interpreted as a version of Marshall Sahlins’s stranger-king. By combining anthropological theory and comparative evidence, the article explores the locally produced hagiographical sources from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries in order to demonstrate how St Adalbert’s heroic status and retroactively invented ethnic and sacral otherness were exploited for the purposes of institutional and king-like legitimacy vis-à-vis the Polish people. In its conclusions the article argues that concepts and comparative methods from political anthropology can help us to reconsider the category of holy rulers and offer new ways of reading hagiographical sources as political treatises.

"An essay looking at the role that the cults of devotion to the saints played in Christian life in medieval europe. It looks at areas such as the development of saints in the early church, the grown of localised sacred space and in pilgrimages. It finishes with the importance of Mary and a brief look at how the medieval understanding of cosmology and divine kingship helped set teh foundations for beleif in the saints. A relatively brief essay designed to lead into more study. "

2022

INTRODUCTION: ТНЕ CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE John Scot(t)us Eriugena was an Irish scholar residing at the court of Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne, king of the F ranks. Charlemagne stood at the beginning of а cultural renaissance (renovatio), а Ыossoming of the arts and the intellectual life. Eriugena is mainly remembered for his volu minous work rhe Periphyseon [On NatureJ or, in its Latin title, De Divisione Naturae [The Division ofNature], а dialogue berween а Master (Nutritor) and his disciple (Alumnus). Other important works are his De Divina Praedestinatione [Trearise оп Divine Predestination], the Homily оп the Prologue о/ John, and an incomplete Commentary оп the Gospel of John (and part of which is lost: all we have is the commentary оп John 1:п-29; р-4, 28; 6:5-14). We do not know when Eriugena was born-he seems to have died some time around AD 870 or not too many years afterwards. Не arrived at the court of Charles the Bald in the 840s. Не knew Greek, and translated rhe complete works of Pseudo-Dionysius, the Ambi gu a and Quaestiones ad Thallassicum Ьу Maximus Confessor, and Gregory of Nyssa's De hominis op f cio [ ? n the Making of Мал]. These aurhors had а major impact оп Eпugena s own thought, and he quotes extensively from their works in his own Periphyseon. Some of the main rhemes he adopts from Pseudo Dionysi us are the emphasis оп rhe unknowaЫe nature of God, the roles of negative and positive theology and the themes of procession and return. A.fter the turbulences of previous centuries (discussed earlier) Charlemagne (ло 742-814), sometimes called Pater Europae (the Father of Europe) was crowned Emperor Ьу Роре Leo III оп Christmas Day ло 800. This evenr had more than а symbolic significance: it illustrates how rhe рарасу turned its attention away from Byzantium towards the Westthereby reinforcing the polirical and culrural separation between the Latin West and the Greek East. For the firsr time after the collapse of the Roman John Scottus Eriugena 57 Empire, Western Europe was united under one head: from Frisia and Saxony in rhe North ro the Pyrenees and Northern ltaly (with the exceprion of the papal regions) in rhe South, and Bohemia and Dalmatia in rhe East. Charlemagne had three sons and initially divided his realm into three parts; but in лD 813 he crowned his only surviving son, Louis the Pious, Emperor in the magnifi cent Palatine Chapel at Aachen. A.fter the death of Charlemagne, Роре Stephanus did the ceremony over in Reims, thereby creating an important historical precedent: emperors are crowned Ь у Popes, preferaЬly in Rome. Charlemagne himself moved around (V � gobundus Carolus) throughout his empire, thus failing to estaЬlish one maJor center of power and administration, which partly explains t � e later fragm � ntation of the Carolingian empire. Under his son Louis the Pюus, monasteпes w_ ere reorganized and rhe Benedictine Rule was enforced through � ut the e1:1 � 1re. A.fter Louis' death and а series of dynastic disputes the emp1re was d1v1ded amongst Charlemagne's grandsons into three parts in AD 843 (Treaty of Verdun): rhe Western part (later France) was given to Charles the Bald at whose court Eriugena Scottus would reside; the Eastern part (larer Germany) was given to Louis the German, while the M _ iddle Кingdo � (including the Low Countries, Burgundy and ltaly) was g1ven to Lotha1r; this Middle Кingdom did not prove politically viaЬle. Partly due to the lack of а proper political center, family rivalr y and external pressure (from Muslims in the South, Ma gy ars in the East and Vikings who presented а constant threat throughout the ni � r _ h centur y in the North Sea regions), the Carolingian empire proved polш � ally uns � c cessful; however, as suggested earlier, а genuine cultural reb1rth (rena1s sance) took place under the Carolingians which was to have а lasting legacy in many areas. Charlemagne tried to create а culture for his new �� ristian empire, attracting scholars from all over Europe (Lombards, V1S1 _ goths, Anglo-Saxons, Franks and Irish), promoting the art � , t � e foundatюn of schools, the copying of Scripture, the study of class1c l1terature and the Fathers and so forth. Because Charlemagne wished to have а reliaЫe text of rhe Latin BiЬle Qerome's Vulgate), study of Latin and its most important authors was cultivared. Study of the seven liberal arts (grammatica, rhetorica, dialectica, arithmetica, geometria, astronomia, musica) was encouraged in cathedral schools. lt was Marrianus Capella (fourrh centur y) who, in his De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii [The Marriage of Philology and Mercur y ], had bequeathed the tradition of the seven liberal arts t ? the Middle Ages. Eriugena knew this work and wrote а commentar y оп It. Like his grandfather, Charles the Bald (лD 822-877) ruled fro1:1 а peripatetic court, which mainly rravelled across the lsle-de-France regюn.