medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Graham,
Thanks for this. Alexander of Ashby (A. Essebiensis) includes a Marbod-like treatment of Maurilius/Morrell in his _De sanctorum miraculis_ or _Liber festialis_. See A. G. Rigg, _A History of Anglo-Latin Literature, 1066-1422_, pp. 131-32. If the other seventy-three saints whose feasts are dealt with in this versified calendar can be shown to have been celebrated liturgically in twelfth-century England, that would offer some support for the identification of Hallaton's Mawrell with Maurilius of Angers.
Note that in the Angers painting of the miracle in question
http://www.le.ac.uk/users/grj1/mor2.html
the keys are plural (as they are also in the modern versions). Marbod makes it a single key, but this may just be for metrical convenience.
Best again,
John Dillon
On Wednesday, March 18, 2009, at 3:35 am, Graham Jones wrote:
> Dear All
>
> For a possible culting of Maurilius in England, see
> http://www.le.ac.uk/users/grj1/morrell.html
>
> with a link to high-quality wall-paintings in Angers, including the
> fish-and-key miracle, at http://www.le.ac.uk/users/grj1/mor1.html
>
> Hard copy material in my book 'Saints in the Landscape' (Stroud, Tempus,
> 2007).
>
> Best wishes
>
> Graham
>
> ******************************************
> Dr Graham Jones
> St John's College (University of Oxford)
> Oxford OX1 3JP
> Tel: +(0)1865 280146 (with voice-mail)
> e-Mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> Senior Research Associate
> School of Geography and the Environment
> University of Oxford.
> Web: http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/gjones.html
> Honorary Visiting Fellow
> Centre for English Local History
> University of Leicester.
> Web: http://www.le.ac.uk/users/grj1
> ******************************************
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
> culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John
> Dillon
> Sent: 18 March 2009 04:12
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [M-R] keys - pilgrim souvenirs, grave goods, other?
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> Jim,
>
> There's a keys-and-relics miracle in the later Vitae, etc. of St.
> Maurilius of Angers, starting with Arconaldus in the tenth century (BHL
> 5731-5731d; once falsely attrib. to Venantius Fortunatus) and including
> Marbod of Rennes in the early twelfth (BHL 5732; PL 171, cc. 1635-48;
> passage is at col. 1644B-D). For modern French-language and
> English-language versions, see (in French):
> http://carmina-carmina.com/carmina/Mytholosaints/maurille.htm
> (and in English):
> http://tinyurl.com/cqz4cz
>
> Best,
> John Dillon
>
> On Tuesday, March 17, 2009, at 7:15 pm, Jim Bugslag wrote:
>
> > Meg,
> > I have no doubt you are on to something here. Such seemingly
> > innocuous items as keys and
> > bells and staffs seem to have had a very powerful resonance in the
> > Middle Ages. I haven't
> > made a systematic study of this, but as has been pointed out, St Peter
>
> > was from a very early
> > time associated with keys, which became his attribute long before
> > attributes of saints were at
> > all common, and I have come across a couple of stories (legends, in
>
> > hagiographic terms) that
> > involve keys. The first, I am sure, will be of particular interest
> to
>
> > you. It involves the
> > foundation legends of Evesham Abbey in the 7th century. St Egwin, who
>
> > was the bishop of
> > Worcester at the time, was forced to become a hermit on the banks of
>
> > the Avon, near the
> > future site of Evesham. When called to Rome, he determined to
> travel
> > as a penitent, and
> > shackled his legs, throwing the key into the Avon before setting out.
>
> > When he arrived in
> > Rome, he celebrated Mass in St Peter's Basilica and then settled in
> to
>
> > a fish dinner. Inside
> > the fish he was eating, he found the key he had thrown in the Avon.
>
> > On his return, after
> > apparitions of the Virgin Mary, Evesham was founded. I haven't been
>
> > able to determine yet if
> > the key was among the relics of Evesham, though. Another story
> > involves the church of
> > Notre-Dame la Grande in Poitiers and supposedly took place at the
> > beginning of the 13th
> > century. The mayor of Poitiers had an ambitious clerk who in 1202
> > found himself in the city
> > of Perigueux, which was then held by the English. He made a deal with
>
> > the English to deliver
> > Poitiers to them in exchange, I believe, for a pot of wine (obviously,
>
> > he was a fairly inept
> > traitor!). To this effect, he sneaked into the mayor's bedroom one
>
> > night, where he usually
> > kept the keys above his bed, but couldn't find them. So, he woke up
>
> > the mayor and trumped
> > up an excuse for asking him for the keys. But the mayor couldn't find
>
> > them either. Shortly
> > later, the English were discovered outside the gates of the city,
> and
> > the mayor prayed to
> > Notre-Dame la Grande to put the city in her care. And when in front
>
> > of the statue, he saw the
> > keys in her hand. She was afterwards sometimes known as Notre-Dame
>
> > des Clefs. I doubt
> > whether these are isolated stories, and I wonder whether others have
>
> > come across similar
> > ones, or of keys that functioned, in recognition of such miracles,
> as
> > relics.
> > Cheers,
> > Jim
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