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The Cult of the Saints in the Carolingian Empire:
A Bibliography

Compiled by Thomas Head
Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY


Contents: 1) Genral historical studies; 2) Carolingian religious legislation; 3) Hagiographic Vitae; 4) Cult of relics; 5) Female sanctity; 6) Literacy and the audience of hagiography; 7) Visions and dreams; 8) Neighbors of the Carolingian empire.

General historical studies.

A number of good introductions to Carolingian history and culture exist, among them two works by Pierre Riché, Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne, trans. Jo Ann McNamara (Philadelphia, 1978) and The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe, trans. Michael Allen (Philadelphia, 1993). The most comprehensive political history available in English is Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751-987 (London, 1983).

Jean Chélini, L'Aube du moyen âge: Naissance de la Chrétienté occidentale (Paris, 1991) is a competent, but ultimately disappointing survey of Christian institutions and practice in the Carolingian world. J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983), pp. 258-390 has much of interest to say about the role of the church and of the saints in the Carolingian empire. On the importance of the papacy and the institutional church in the formation of the Carolingian order, see Thomas Noble, The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680-825 (Philadelphia, 1984).

Wolfgang Braunfels (ed.), Karl der Grosse: Lebenswerk und Nachleben, 5 vols. (Dusseldorf, 1965-72) provided a "state of the art" statement about Charlemagne which included much about religion and the cult of saints. It is important, however, to remember that Charles was not thought of as "saintly" in his own time. On the development of his cult, see Robert Folz, Le souvenir et la légende de Charlemagne dans l'Empire germanique médiéval (Paris, 1950). Peter Godman and Roger Collins (eds.), Charlemagne's Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814-840) (Oxford, 1990) does for Louis what Braunfels once did for Charles, again with much attention to religion in general and saints in particular. Comprehensive reviews of the literature may be found in Donald Bullough "Europae Pater: Charlemagne and his Achievement in the Light of Recent Scholarship," English Historical Review, 75 (1970), pp. 59-105 and Richard Sullivan, "The Carolingian Age: Reflections on its Place in the History of the Middle Ages," Speculum, 64 (1989), pp. 267-306.

Among historians of Carolingian politics and institutions Janet Nelson has provided particularly close attention to religious life and practice. See, for example, her "Charles the Bald and the Church in Town and Countryside," Studies in Church History, 16 (1979), pp. 103-18, much elaborated in her biography Charles the Bald (London, 1992). Her essays have been collected in Janet Nelson, Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (London, 1986) and a second volume to appear shortly from Boydell and Brewer. The essays of Donald Bullough in Carolingian Renewal: Sources and Heritage (Manchester, 1992) also have much to offer in a similar vein.

Carolingian Religious legislation.

For general guides to this legislation, see Paul Fournier and Gabriel Le Bras, Histoire des collections canoniques en occident depuis les Fausses Décrétales jusqu'au Décret de Gratien, 2 vols. (Paris, 1931-32); Carlo de Clercq, La Legislation réligieuse franque. Etude sur les actes des conciles et les capitulaires, les statuts diocésains et les règles monastiques, 2 vols. (Louvain, 1936 and Antwerp, 1958); Wilifried Hartmann, Die Synoden der Karolingerzeit im Frankenreich und in Italien (Paderborn, 1989). Eric Kemp, Canonization and Authority in the Western Church (Oxford, 1948) has some interesting observations on the ways in which this legislation controlled the cult of saints.

For comprehensive editions of episcopal and ecclesiastical legislation, see the volumes of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Legum sectio 3, Concilia: (1) Concilia aevi Merovingici, ed. Friederich Maassen (Hannover, 1893); (2) Concilia aevi Karolini, ed. Albert Werminghoff, 2 vols. (Hannover, 1906-8); (2, supplement) Libri Carolini, ed. Hubert Bastgen (Hannover, 1924); (3) Die Konzilien der Karolingischen Teilreiche, 843-859, ed. Wilifried Hartmann (Hannover, 1984); (4, supplement) Hincmar of Reims, De divortio Lotharii regis et Theubergae reginae, ed. Letha Bohringer (Hannover, 1992); Ernst-Dieter Hehl, Die Konzilien Deutschlands und Reichsitaliens, 916-1001: Teil 1. 916-960 (MGH, Concilia, 6.1; Hannover, 1987). Note: volumes 4 (Councils, 860-78), 5 (Councils, 878-916), and 6.2 (German and Italian Councils, 960-1001), as well as a new edition of the Libri Carolini are all underway. Also see: Capitula episcoporum, ed. Peter Brommer (MGH, Capitula Episcoporum, 1; Hannover, 1984). For insight into the continuing editorial project, see Peter Brommer, "Editorische Probleme bei den 'Capitula episcoporum'," in Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law (Berkeley, 1980) (Monumenta Iuris Canonici, series C, 7; Vatican City, 1976), pp. 3-13.

Hagiographic Vitae.

Pierre Riché, "Les Carolingiens en quête de sainteté," in Jean-Yves Tilliette et al. (eds.), Les fonctions des saints dans le monde occidental (Rome, 1991), pp. 217-24 is an essential starting point for the consideration of Carolingian hagiography. The most general study of Carolingian vitae is Walter Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, III: Karolingische Biographie, 750-920 n. Chr. (Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters, 10; Stuttgart: A. Hiersemann, 1986). Alessandro Barbero, Un santo in famiglia: vocazione religiosa e resistenze sociali nall'agiografia latina medievale (Sacro/santo, 6; Turin: Rosenberg and Sellier, 1991) and I Deug-Su, "Agiografia e potere in étà carolingia," in Giovanni Scoto nel suo tempo: L'organizzazione del sapere in étà carolingia (Spoleto, 1989), pp. 27-80 both study particular problems in terms of a wide selection of texts. Other studies of Carolingian vitae have tended to concentrate on individual regions or authors. The most wide-ranging such study remains Joseph-Claude Poulin, L'ideal de sainteté dans l'Aquitaine carolingienne d'après les sources hagiographiques (750-950) (Quebec City, 1975). For another regional study, see the relevant chapters of Thomas Head, Hagiography and the Cult of Saints. The Diocese of Orléans, 800-1200 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, fourth series, number 14; Cambridge, 1990). Two important studies of the cult of saints in Italian cities begin in the Carolingian period: Paolo Golinelli, Culto dei santi e vita cittadina a Reggio Emilia (secoli IX-XII) (Modena, 1980) and Luigi Canetti, Gloriosa civitas. Culto dei santi e società cittadina a Piacenza nel Medioevo (Cristianesimo antico e medievale, 4; Bologna, 1993). Also see Joaquin Pizarro, Writing Ravenna: The Liber Pontificalis of Andreas Agnellus (Ann Arbor, MI: 1995).

On one of the most prominent hagiographers of the Carolingian world, see I Deug-Su, L'opera agiografica di Alcuino (Spoleto, 1983). For shorter studies of individual authors, see: Martin Brooke, "The Prose and Verse Hagiography of Walahfrid Strabo," in Peter Godman and Roger Collins (eds.), Charlemagne's Heir. New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814-840) (Oxford, 1990), pp. 551-64; Donald Bullough, "Hagiography as Patriotism: Alcuin's 'York Poem' and the Early Northumbrian Vitae sanctorum," in Evelyne Patlagean and Pierre Riché, eds., Hagiographie, cultures, et sociétés. IVe-XIIe siècles (Paris, 1981), pp. 339-359; Heinz Stiene, Wandalbert von Prüm: Vita et Miracula sancti Goaris (Peter Lang, 1981). Also see David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance (Beihefte der Francia, 20; Sigmaringen, 1990) for an important discussion of Paschasius Radbertus' lives of Adalhard and Wala. On verse lives consult Jean-Yves Tilliette, "Les modèles de sainteté du IXe au XIe siècle, d'après le témoinage des récits hagiographiques en vers métriques," in Santi e demoni nell'alto medioevo occidentale (secoli V-XI), 2 vols. (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 36; Spoleto, 1989), pp. 381-406.

The cult of relics.

It is the cult of relics which has received proportionally more interest. An old article by Heinrich Fichtenau still provides an interesting introduction to the status of relics in Carolingian culture, see "Zum Reliquienwesen im früheren Mittelalter," Mitteilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung, 60 (1952), pp. 60-89. Patrick Geary has provided an entertaining and absorbing study of one aspect of the cult of saints in this period in Furta Sacra. Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton, 1978; second edition 1990). Nicole Herrmann-Mascard, Les reliques des saints. Formation coutumière d'un droit (Société d'histoire du droit, Collection d'histoire institutionnelle et sociale, 6; Paris, 1975) studies the development of various legal traditions about relics and their use; she has much to say about the Carolingian period, but the work is sloppily footnoted and must be used with caution.

On relic translations, generally see Martin Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte und andere quellen des Reliquien kultes (Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental, 33; Turnhout, 1979), as well as Henri Fros, "Liste des translations et inventions de l'époque carolingienne," Analecta Bollandiana, 104 (1986), pp. 427-9; E. Dupré-Theseider, "La 'grande rapina dei corpi santi' dall Italia all tempo di Ottone," Festschrift Percy Ernst Schramm, (Wiesbaden, 1964), 1:420-32; Pierre Riché, "Translations de reliques à l'époque carolingienne. Histoire des reliques de Saint-Malo," Le Moyen Age, 82 (1976), pp. 201-218; Roman Michalowski, "Le don d'amitié dans la société carolingienne et les Translationes sanctorum," in Evelyne Patlagean and Pierre Riché, eds., Hagiographie, cultures, et sociétés. IVe-XIIe siècles (Paris, 1981), pp. 399-416; Klemens Honselmann, "Reliquientranslationen nach Sachsen," and "Undatierte Reliquienschenkungen für neugegründete Kirchen," in Victor Elbern, Das erste Jahrtausend, 3 vols. (Dusseldorf, 1962), 1:159-63 and 164-93; Wilhelm Hotzelt, "Translationen von Martyrerreliquien aus Rom nach Bayern im 8. Jh.," Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktiner-Ordens, 53 (1935), pp. 286-343; Baoudouin de Gaiffier, "Relations religieuses de l'Espagne avec le Nord de la France: Transferts de reliques (VIIIe-XIIe siècle)," in idem, Recherches d'hagiographie latine (Subsidia Hagiographica, 52; Brusells, 1971), pp. 7-29; A. Belloni, "La Translatio Benedicti a Fleury e gli antichi monasteri dell'Italia settentrionale," Italio medioevale e umanistica, 27 (1984), pp. 1-16. For a model edition of a tenth-century text, see Nicholas Huyghebaert, Une translation de reliques à Gand en 944. Le Sermo de Adventu Sanctorum Wandregisili, Ansberti et Vulframni in Blandium (Brussels, 1978).

For a general study of the relationship of relics and pilgrimage in the early midde ages, see Franco Cardini, "Reliquie e pellegrinaggi," in Santi e demoni nell'alto medioevo occidentale (secoli V-XI), 2 vols. (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 36; Spoleto, 1989), pp. 981-1036. Relatively few studies of Carolingian miracle collections (as opposed to translationes) exist, but see Michel Rouche, "Miracles, maladies et psychologie de la foi à l'époque carolingienne en Francie," in Evelyne Patlagean and Pierre Riché, eds., Hagiographies, cultures, et sociétés. IVe-XIIe siècles (Paris, 1981), pp. 319-337 and Hubert Mordek, "Von Patrick zu Bonifatius . . . Alkuin, Ferrières, und die irischen Heiligen in einem westfränkischen Reliquienverzeichnis," in Ex Ipsis Rerum Documentis. Beiträge zur Mediävistik. Festschrift für Harald Zimmermann zum 65 Geburtstag, eds. Klaus Herbers, Hans-Hemming Kurtum, and Carlo Servatius (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbeke, 1991), pp. 56-68. Caroline Brett, ed. and trans., The Monks of Redon (Woodbridge, 1989) provides an interesting, if atypical, collection of miracle stories in Latin edition and English translation. The text found in Andreas Bauch (ed.), Ein bayerisches Mirakelbuch aus der Karolingerzeit. Die Monheimer Walpurgis-Wunder des Priesters Wolfhard (Regensburg, 1979) is probably a better example of a "typical" Carolingian shrine.

One of the most important Carolingian contributions to the western hagiographic tradition was the compilation of many influential martyrologies. A good introduction in English may be found in John McCulloh, "Historical Martyrologies in the Benedictine Cultural Tradition," in Benedictine Culture, 750-1050, ed. W. Lourdaux and D. Verhelst (Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, 1.11; Leuven, 1983), pp. 114-31. More generally see Jacques Dubois, Les martyrologes du moyen âge latin (Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental, 26; Turnhout, 1978). Some important editions include: Jacques Dubois, Martyrologes d'Usuard au martyrologe romain (Abbeville, 1990); Jacques Dubois and Genevieve Renaud (eds.), Le martyrologe d'Adon, ses deux familles, ses trois recensions (Paris, 1984). On manuscript diffusion, see E. A. Overgaauw, Martyrologes manuscrits des anciens diocèses d'Utrecht et de Liège. Etude sur le développement et la diffusion du Martyrologe d'Usuard, 2 vols. (Hilversum, 1993).

The earliest large-scale evidence for monastic prayer for the dead comes from the Carolingian period. For a good introduction in English, see Donald Bullough, "Alcuin and the kingdom of heaven. Liturgy, theology, and the Carolingian age," in Carolingian Essays, ed. Uta-Renate Blumenthal (Washington, D.C., 1983), pp. 1-70. We will return to this topic in later bibliographies.

Female sanctity.

Julia Smith has presented a compelling thesis about women saints and their hagiography in "The Problem of Female Sanctity in Carolingian Europe c. 780-920," Past and Present, 146 (1995), pp. 3-37. On other aspects of the problem, see Katrien Heene, "Female Saints and Their Lives: The Geographical Distribution of the Carolingian vitae feminarum," in Aevum inter utrumque. Mélanges offerts à Gabriel Sanders, professeur émérite à l'Université de Gand (Instrumenta patristica, 23; Steenbrueh, 1991), pp. 205-25; Rosamond McKitterick, "Frauen und Schriftlichkeit im Frühmittelalter," in Hans-Werner Goetz (ed.), Weibliche Lebensgestaltung im Frühen Mittelalter (Cologne and Vienna, 1991), pp. 65-118; I Deug-Su, "La Vita Rictrudis di Ubaldo di Saint-Amand: Un'agiografia intellettuale e i santi imperfetti," Studi Medievali, third series, 31 (1990), pp. 545-582. On saintly men as advisors to women, see Jane Bishop, "Bishops as Marital Advisors in the Ninth Century," in Women of the Medieval World, ed. Julius Kirschner and Suzanne Wemple (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985) and Albrecht Classen, "Frauenbriefe an Bontifatius. Frühmittelalterliche Literaturdenkmäler aus literahistorischer Sicht," Archiv fur Kulturgeschichte, 72 (1990), pp. 251-273. On saintly queens, see Robert Folz, Les saintes reines du moyen âge en occident (VIe-XIIIe siècles) (Subsidia hagiographica, 76; Brussels).

More generally on female sanctity in the early middle ages, see the ongoing work of Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, in such articles as "Female Sanctity: Public and Private Roles, ca. 500-1100," in Mary Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski (eds.), Women and Power in the Middle Ages (Athens, GA, 1988), pp. 102-25, and now available as "Forgetful of Their Sex": Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).

On the only named female hagiographer of the Carolingian period, see Eva Gottschaller, Hugeburc von Heidenheim: Philologische Untersuchungen zu den Heiligenbiographen einer Nonne des achten Jahrhunderts (Münchener Beiträge zur Mediävistik und Renaissance-Forschung, 12; Munich: Arbeo-Gesellschaft, 1973); Walter Berschin, "Hugeburcs Vita Willibaldi in der biographischen Tradition," Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige, 98 (1987): 31-7; Claudio Leonardi, "Modelli agiografici nel secolo VIII: da Beda a Ugeburga," in Les fonctions des saints dans le monde occidental (IIIe-XIIIe siècle) (Collection de l'Ecole française de Rome, 149; Rome: Ecole française, 1991), pp. 506-16; Francesca Vitrone, "Hugeburc di Heidenheim e le Vitae Willibaldi et Wynnebaldi," Hagiographica, 1 (1994), pp. 43-79.

Literacy and the audience of hagiography.

Much attention is now being paid to the topic of literacy in the Carolingian world. See in particular the essays collected in Rosamond McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge, 1989). More generally on the changes in Latinity and literacy in the early middle ages, see Michel Banniard, Viva voce. Communications écrite et communication orale du IVe au IXe siècle en occidente latin (Collection des Etudes Augustiniennes, Séries moyen âge et temps modernes, 25; Paris, 1992); Michael Richter, The Formation of the Medieval West: Studies in the Oral Culture of the Barbarians (Dublin, 1994); and the essays collected in Rosamund McKitterick (ed.), The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1990). On the question of the continuing audience for Latin among the laity in the Carolingian world, see the pioneering work of Roger Wright, Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France (ARCA Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs, 8; Liverpool, 1982) and the essays collected in Roger Wright (ed.), Latin and the Romance Languages in the Early Middle Ages (New York, 1991). Wright was in part reacting against the views of such scholars as: Jacques Fontaine, "De la pluralité à l'unité dans le 'latin carolingien'?" in Nascita dell'Europe ed Europe Carolingia: Un'equazione da verificare, 2 vols. (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 27; Spoleto, 1981), pp. 765-805; Anita Guerreau-Jalabert, "La 'renaissance carolingienne:' modèles culturels, usages linguistiques et structures sociales," Bibliothèque d'Ecole des Chartes, 139 (1981), pp. 5-35; Michael Richter, "Kommunikationsprobleme im lateinishcen Mittelalter," Historische Zeitschrift 222 (1976), pp. 43-80 and "Die Sprachenpolitik Karls des Grossen," Sprachwissenschaft 7 (1982), pp. 412-37; and Marc van Uytfanghe, "Histoire du latin, protohistoire des langues romanes et histoire de la communication," Francia 11 (1983), pp. 579-613. Katrien Heene has the fullest treatment of the question of hagiographic texts in "Audiere, legere, vulgo: An Attempt to Define Public Use and Comprehensibility of Carolingian Hagiography," in Latin and the Rolmance Languages in the Early Middle Ages, pp. 146-63 and "Merovingian and Carolingian Hagiography. Continuity or Change in Public and Aims?" Analecta Bollandiana, 107 (1989), pp. 415-428. For an exemplary study of the iconography of a hagiographic text from this period, see Cynthia Hahn, Passio Kiliani . . . Passiio Margaretae: Faksimile-Ausgabe des Codex. . . Ms. I 189 . . . aus dem Besitz der Niedersächsichen Landesbibliothek Hannover (Graz, 1988).

Visions and dreams.

The genre of visions and religious dreams, particularly of the otherworld, are strongly related to hagiography. An interesting, but problematic, introduction may be found in Steven Kruger, Dreaming in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1992). The classic introduction to visions of the other world remains Jacques LeGoff, The Birth of Purgatory, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984). More specifically on the Carolingian world see Paul Dutton, The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire (Lincoln, NB, 1994) and the work of Claude Carozzi: "Les Carolingiens dans l'au-delà," Haut Moyen-Age: Culture, éducation et société: Etudes offertes à Pierre Riché, ed. Michel Sot, et al. (Paris, 1990), pp. 67-76; "La géographie de l'au-delà et sa signification pendant le haut moyen âge," in Popoli e paesi nella cultura altomedievale, 2 vols. (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 29; Spoleto, 1983), pp. 423-81; "Structure et fonction de la vision de Tnugdal," in Faire croire: Modalités de la diffusion et de la réception des messages religieux du XII e au XVe siècle (Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome; 51; Rome, 1981), pp. 223-34. Also of interest are Michel Aubrun, "Caractères et portée religieuse et sociale des 'Visiones' en Occident du VIe au XIe siècle," Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 23 (1980), pp. 109-30 and F. Neiske, "Vision und Totengedenken," Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 20 (1986), pp. 137-85. One of the most important texts may be found in English translation in: D. A. Traill, Walahfrid Strabo's "Visio Wettini": Text, Translation and Commentary (Frankfurt, 1974). Giovanni Tabacco, "agiografia e demonologia come strumenti ideologici in età carolingia," Santi e demoni nell'alto medioevo occidentale (secoli V-XI), 2 vols. (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 36; Spoleto, 1989), pp. 121-54 explores the relationships of the genres in a fascinating manner.

The neighbors of the Carolingian empire.

There are many important hagiographic traditions which are in some sense tangential to the Carolingian empire. On the lives of missionary saints, Walter Levison, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Oxford, 1946) remains esssential. More recently, see Arnold Angenendt, Kaiserherrschaft und Konigstauge: Kaiser, Konige und Papste als geisliche Patrone im der abenlandischen Missiongeschichte (Berlin, 1984). On the cult of relics of these saints, see David Parsons, "Sites and Monuments of the Anglo-Saxon Mission in Central Germany," The Archeological Journal, 140 (1983), pp. 280-321. On specific figures, see Thiofrid Schieffer, Winfrid-Bonifatius und die christliche Grundlegung Europas (1954); Timothy Reuter (ed.), The Greatest Englishman: Essays on St. Boniface and the Church at Crediton (Exeter, 1980); P. Kehl, Kult und Nachleben des heligen Bonifacius im Mittelater (754-1200) (Quellen und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Abtei und der Diozese Fulda, 26; Fulda, Parzeller Verlag, 1993); Alois Schröer, "Das geistliche bild Liudgers," in Victor Elbern (ed.), Das erste Jahrtausend, 3 vols. (Dusseldorf, 1962), 1:194-215; Hans-Joachim Reischmann (ed. and trans.), Willibrord, Apostel der Friesen: Seine Vita nach Alkuin und Thiofrid (Sigmaringen, 1989); G. Kiesel and J. Schroeder (eds.), Willibrord. Apostel der Niederlande. Gründer der Abtei Echternach (Luxemburg, 1989); Pius Engelbert, Die Vita Sturmii des Eigil von Fulda: Literarkritisch-historische Untersuchung und Edition (Marburg, 1968); Arnold Angenendt, Monachi Peregrini: Studien zu Pirmin und den monastischen Vorstellungen des frühen Mittelalters (Munich, 1972). On the materiality of local Saxon religion and efforts to combat it, see H. Homann, Der Indiculus supersitionum und verwandte Denkmäler (Gottingen, 1965) and Ruth Mazo Karras, "Pagan Survivals and Syncretism in the Conversion of Saxony," The Catholic Historical Review, 72 (1986), pp. 553-72.

Britanny was only tangentially part of the Carolingian empire. See the analysis of Julia Smith, Province and Empire, particularly chapter 6 on hagiography and saints. See also Bernard Merdrignac, Recherches sur l'hagiographie armoricaine du VIIème au XVème siècle: 1, Les saints bretons, témoins de dieu ou témoins des hommes? and 2, Les hagiographes et leurs publics en Bretagne au moyen âge (Saint Malo, 1985-86), Jean-Claude Poulin, "Les relations entre la Bretagne carolingienne et le reste du continent d'apres les sources hagiographiques," Voix d'ouest en Europe, souffles d'Europe en ouest, ed. G. Cesbron (Angers, Presses de l'Universite, 1993), p. 65-81, and Caroline Brett, "Breton Latin Literature as Evidence for Literature in the Vernacular, A.D. 800-1300," Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 18 (1989), pp. 1-25.

The most important new saints in Iberia during the ninth century were the martyrs of Cordoba. See in particular Kenneth Wolf, Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), although the basic study of the texts remains E. P. Colbert, The Martyrs of Cordoba (Washington, DC, 1962). Also see the psychoanalytic angle provided by Clayton Drees, "Sainthood and Suicide: The Motives of the Martyrs of Cordoba, A.D. 850-859," Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 59-90 and the eschatological perspective provided by A. Cutler, "The Ninth-Century Spanish Martyrs' Movement and the Origins of Western Christian Missions to the Muslims," Muslim World, 55 (1965), pp. 321-39. Finally, Janet Nelson has made an intriguing suggestion concerning the Carolingian political context of this movment in "The Franks, The Martyrology of Usuard, and the Martyrs of Cordoba," in Martyrs and Martyrologies, ed. Diana Wood (Studies in Church History, 30; Oxford, 1993), pp. 67-80.

It is difficult to separate the later period of Anglo-Saxon England completely from the earlier period. The following books have useful things to say about the cult of saints in ninth and tenth-century England: David Rollason, Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1989); Susan Ridyard, The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults (Cambridge, 1988); Mary Clayton, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge, 1990); Theodor Wolpers, Die englische Heiligenlegende des Mittelalters (Tübingen, 1964); Antonia Grandsen, Historical Writing in England, c. 550 to c. 1307 (London, 1974); Milton Gatch, Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England (Toronto, 1977). More specifically see David Rollason, "The Shrines of Saints in Later Anglo-Saxon England: Distribution and Significance," in The Anglo-Saxon Church. Papers on History, Architecture, and Archaeology in Honour of Dr. H. M. Taylor, ed. L. A. S. Butler and R. K. Morris (Council for British Archaeology Reserach Report, 60; London, 1986), pp. 32-43; David Rollason, "Relic Cults as an Instrument of Royal Policy, c. 900-c. 1050," Anglo-Saxon England, 15 (1986), pp. 91-103; Lawrence Butler, "Church Dedications and the Cults of Anglo-Saxon Saints in England," in The Anglo-Saxon Church (cited above) pp. 44-50; and the studies of David Dumville collected in Liturgy and the Ecclesiastical History of Late Anglo-Saxon England: Four Studies (Woodbridge, 1992). On some of the more renowned of late Anglo-Saxon hagiographers, see Andy Orchard, The Poetic Art of Aldhelm (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 8; Cambridge, 1994); Pauline Stafford, "Church and Society in the Age of Aelfric," The Old English Homily and Its Backgrounds, ed. Paul Szarmach and B. Huppe (New York, 1978), pp. 11-42; M. R. Godden, "Aelfric's Saints' Lives and the Problem of Miracles," Leeds Studies in English, 16 (1985), pp. 83-100. L. M. Reimsma, Aelfric: An Annotated Bibliography (New York, 1987) provides fuller bibliography on the latter figure.


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