Liturgy against History: The Competing Visions of Lanfranc and Eadmer of Canterbury

Rubenstein, Jay

doi:10.2307/2887048

Cited by 40 publications

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“…14 Subsequent scholars have shied away from generalisations, and in doing so highlighted that the main reason why individual communities commissioned narrative hagiographies for particular cults was to support claims to authority at moments of institutional crisis or change; at the same time, they have shown that the decision to document a particular Anglo-Saxon cult often led to the deliberate neglect of other existing ones previously observed by that community. 15 At the same time, those working on Anglo-Saxon hagiography across the later tenth and earlier eleventh centuries have drawn attention to the significance of a considerable body of liturgical evidence for the knowledge of English saints in this period. 16 In particular they have focussed scholars' attention, through easily available modern editions, on calendars and litanies, as well as relic lists; martyrologies, by contrast, have been rather more neglected.…”

Section: Lacunae In Modern Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liturgy as History: The Origins of the Exeter Martyrology

Hamilton

2019

Traditio

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Through an Anglo-Norman case study, this article highlights the value of normative liturgical material for scholars interested in the role that saints’ cults played in the history and identity of religious communities. The records of Anglo-Saxon cults are largely the work of Anglo-Norman monks. Historians exploring why this was the case have therefore concentrated upon hagiographical texts about individual Anglo-Saxon saints composed in and for monastic communities in the post-Conquest period. This article shifts the focus away from the monastic to those secular clerical communities that did not commission specific accounts, and away from individual cults, to uncover the potential of historical martyrologies for showing how such secular communities remembered and understood their own past through the cult of saints. Exeter Cathedral Library, MS 3518, is a copy of the martyrology by the ninth-century Frankish monk, Usuard of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, written in and for Exeter cathedral's canons in the mid-twelfth century. Through investigation of the context in which it was produced and how its contents were adapted to this locality, this article uncovers the various different layers of the past behind its compilation. It further suggests that this manuscript is based on a pre-Conquest model, pointing to the textual debt Anglo-Norman churchmen owed to their Anglo-Saxon predecessors.

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Section: Lacunae In Modern Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liturgy as History: The Origins of the Exeter Martyrology

Hamilton

2019

Traditio

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“…1 R.W. Southern, and more recently Sally N. Vaughn and Jay Rubenstein, have produced insightful debate on the historical and intellectual context of Eadmer's writings (Southern 1966;Vaughn 1987;Southern 1990;Rubenstein 1999;Vaughn 2012), as have G.R. Evans on Anselm and his influence, in an illuminating article (Evans 2004), and Martin Brett in his incisive treatment of the textual history of Historia Nouorum (Brett 1979).…”

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confidence: 99%

Contested consecrations and the pursuit of ecclesiastical independence in Scotland and Ireland in the early 1120s

O'Leary¹

2018

North American journal of Celtic studies

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This article investigates two comparable crises of leadership in Gaelic Christendom which occurred around the same time, in 1120-1; these culminated in failed episcopal appointments for St. Andrews and Dublin. The article is based on accounts from Scotland and Ireland which shed light on the developments in both countries; and on Historia Nouorum in Anglia ('History of Recent Events in England') by Eadmer, biographer and confidant of Anselm (archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 until his death in 1109). Eadmer was the principal contemporary first-hand witness to events in this period, but his evidence is somewhat problematic. There are few substantial comparative discussions of Scottish and Irish ecclesiastical developments in the 1120s; in addition, the work of Eadmer needs fuller consideration regarding Canterbury's relationships with Gaelic churches. Eadmer's depiction of the St. Andrews situation is especially significant because he himself was the bishop-elect. I assess how these crises arose, and how they caused the relationships between Gaelic churches and Canterbury to become highly strained. I aim to show that leaders in Scotland and Ireland undertook the pursuit of ecclesiastical independence in very different ways; and that both failed appointments, though eventually prompting a degree of independence, resulted in short-term stagnation.

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“…A self-described newcomer with a relatively poor grasp of local custom, Lanfranc 'de-emphasized the saints, edited the Canterbury calendar, and oversaw the investigation of many saints whose sanctity seemed uncertain', including AElfheah. 123 Even if, as Jay Rubenstein argues, Lanfranc 'did not perceive his reform as an attempt to downplay his community's local heroes', the reforms are nevertheless witness of his casual attitude to local tradition as well as his initial inability to understand the importance of Canterbury saints to the church there. 124 Eadmer makes it clear that Lanfranc did eventually accept AElfheah's sanctity, but the nature of both Lanfranc's doubts and Anselm's argument for AElfheah has more to do with continental philosophy than an acknowledgment of AElfheah's previously established importance to Christ Church, Canterbury.…”

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confidence: 99%

National—ethnic narratives in eleventh-century literary representations of Cnut

Hobson

2014

Anglo-Saxon England

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This article takes literary representations of Cnut, the Danish conqueror of England, as a case study of the construction of English identity in the eleventh century. It traces representations of Cnut in four literary texts composed over the course of the century: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Knútsdrápur, the Encomium Emmae Reginae, and Osbern of Canterbury's Translatio Sancti Ælfegi. Each of these texts constructs a politically useful national—ethnic identity through the figure of Cnut, using the mechanisms of kingship, piety and devotion, language, place and literary tradition to work through the particular exigencies faced by the audiences that they seek to address.

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Liturgy against History: The Competing Visions of Lanfranc and Eadmer of Canterbury

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

Liturgy as History: The Origins of the Exeter Martyrology

Liturgy as History: The Origins of the Exeter Martyrology

Contested consecrations and the pursuit of ecclesiastical independence in Scotland and Ireland in the early 1120s

National—ethnic narratives in eleventh-century literary representations of Cnut

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