3 - Ælfric’s First Homily for the Assumption of Mary

Summary

The contents of the Homily

Basil's appearance in the First Homily for the Assumption of Mary (CH I, 30) is in an episode involving the Emperor Julian the Apostate and his death resulting from the Virgin Mary's intercession (cc. 7 and 8 of the Vita Basilii). In the Homily, this episode is the second of two miracles attributed to the Virgin to prove her strength over the dark forces of the devil and over apostasy. The first miracle relates the legend of Theophilus who, after stipulating a pact with the devil, is redeemed through Mary's intercession (BHL 8121). The episode is summarised by Ælfric in a very short paragraph (lines 190–8). The Homily then continues with an account of the death of Julian the Apostate, told in full and translated from the Vita Basilii (BHL 1023). In the first miracle she appears to the straying saint and redeems him, while in the second, she responds to Basil's prayers by acting as an intermediary and sending a Saint Mercurius to kill Julian the Apostate. The episode of Julian's death as told by Ælfric deserves a detailed analysis, and needs to be defined in terms of its textuality.

The First Homily for the Assumption of Mary combines the explication of a theological tract with two hagiographic exempla. Ælfric introduced the Homily by stating that he is about to comment on a complex letter by Jerome (now ascribed to Paschasius Radbertus), and then related how Mary was called to Heaven and was received by her Son. The verity of Mary's Assumption had never been questioned, not even in the midst of the heated Carolingian debates on the matter. What was at stake, particularly in the decades following the Council of Mainz (813), was whether her ascent to Heaven had been corporal, like that of the Apostle John, or solely spiritual. With its agnostic position, Paschasius’ work, circulating under the name of Jerome, was welcomed as the decisive word on the impossibility of proving Mary's corporal assumption. The letter became immensely influential not only on dormition and homiletic literature but also on the liturgy (especially the martyrologies). Both Ado and Usuardus followed it and Abbo of Fleury made copious use of its doctrine in his florilegium of sermons.