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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Hello all

Yes, I wrote a lot about this in the article Maddy cites and in my book The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England. In both cases I was trying (with the arrogance of a 20-something-year-old) to dismantle the "everyone knows that Normans were hostile to Anglo-Saxon saints" idea. In very general terms I would stand by my argument that Norman churchmen tended to appropriate and adapt the English saints who were an important foundation of their churches' identity and power. But it's also very clear now that such generalizations need to be supplemented by a more nuanced approach based on in-depth study of individual churches -- as in Jay Rubinstein's excellent article.

Sue

On Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 2:22 AM, Madeleine Gray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

On the other hand ...

Susan Ridyard is quite critical of this idea: see ‘“Condigna veneratio”: Post-Conquest Attitudes to the
Saints of the Anglo-Saxons’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 9: 179-206.

She points out that, although St Etheldreda and her associated female royal saints at Ely initially
served as a rallying-point for the Anglo-Saxon resistance, they were subsequently
appropriated to defend the rights of the Norman monks against king and bishop.
Meanwhile at Bury St Edmunds a French abbot welcomed the Normans but used
the cult of St Edmund to defend his position. Similar patterns could be found at St
Albans, Malmesbury (St Aldhelm) and Durham (St Cuthbert).

Also, Mary Swan has pointed to the number of Old English manuscript saints’ lives that survive in post-
Conquest copies and suggested a largely female religious readership (Swan, Mary. 2005. ‘Imagining a Readership for Post-Conquest Old English Manuscripts’. in Stephen Kelly and John J. Thompson (eds), Imagining the Book (Turnhout: Brepols), pp. 145-58; Swan and Elaine Treharne (eds). 2000. Rewriting Old English in the Twelfth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

I can't find my reference to Robert Bartlett’s study of the cults of Irish, Welsh and Scottish saints in twelfth-century England - he notes the number of rewritten
versions of their vitae but argues that this was generally for literary rather than
cultural reasons. There was what he calls a spirit of ‘smug cultural superiority’ but he
suggests that this demonstrates not general disapproval of Celtic barbarism but a
critique of badly-written Latin.

Maddy

---
Prof. Madeleine Gray
University of South Wales
http://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk
http://twitter.com/heritagepilgrim
'Lle taw Duw nid doeth yngan' (St Fagan, allegedly)


On 24/10/2017 07:13, Ihnat, K. (Kati) wrote:

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Richard Pfaff in The Liturgy in Medieval England  (Cambridge, 2009) mentions some of them, though he's also skeptical about this whole Lanfrancian purge idea (explicitly in: R. W. Pfaff "Lanfranc's Supposed Purge of the Anglo-Saxon Calendar." In Warriors and Churchmen in the High Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Karl Leyser, edited by Timothy Reuter, 95-108. London: Hambledon, 1992). 

But there is some evidence of skepticism and liturgical change, described in:

Jay Rubenstein, "Liturgy against History: The Competing Visions of Lanfranc and Eadmer." Speculum 74 (1999): 271-301.

 

T. A. Heslop, "The Canterbury Calendars and the Norman Conquest." In Canterbury and the Norman Conquest: Churches, Saints and Scholars 1066-1109, edited by R. Eales and R. Sharpe, 53-85. London: Hambledon Press, 1995.


Paul Hayward has written a lot about the transition from the perspective of local saints cults, as well (also taking a nuanced position). 


More generally, there's:  

Hugh Thomas, The English and the Normans: Ethnic Hostility, Assimilation and Identity 1066-1220.  Oxford: OUP, 2005 - which mentions attitudes towards saints as well.


Hope that helps!

Kati

_________________________________________________________________________________________
Kati Ihnat  |  Lecturer in Medieval History  |  Radboud University Nijmegen  |  E9.01a  |  Postbus 9103  |  6500 HD Nijmegen 
 
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [[log in to unmask]AC.UK] on behalf of SHERRY L REAMES [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 4:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]UK
Subject: Re: [M-R] normans vs anglo saxon saints
 
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Meg,
I know there have been some major articles on this issue (including one with a title like "Lanfranc's Supposed Purge of the Anglo-Saxon Calendar.") Somebody else on the list may have the citations conveniently at hand. If not, I'll search them out for you later this week.
Sherry Reames


From: Cormack, Margaret Jean
Sent: Monday, October 23, 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] normans vs anglo saxon saints
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Greetings all,
I think it is considered "general knowledge"  that Norman bishops did not approve of the veneration of  numerous Anglo-Saxon saints (Alfeah comes immediately to mind), but that's not something I can put in a footnote. Does anyone know of articles or chapters that discuss this phenomenon? 
Thanks in advance,
Meg
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