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Historical Fact and Exegetical Fiction in the Carolingian Vita S. Sualonis1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Lynda L. Coon
Lynda L. Coon
Affiliation:
Lynda L. Coon is an associate professor of History at the University of Arkans.
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Extract

The nineteenth-century editor of Ermenrich of Ellwangen's (ca. 814–74) Vita Sualonis, Oswald Holder-Egger, dismissed the Carolingian hagiographer's sermon on the Anglo-Saxon hermit Sualo as historically unimportant because of its heavy reliance on oral traditions, its turgid prose style, and its clumsy Latin grammar. Holder-Egger found fault with the “ahistoricism” of Ermenrich's Vita—a scholarly stance no doubt influenced by the historicism of his day that privileged “the basic story as the primary object or goal of research.” For the late-nineteenth century, the recovery and reconstruction of an original source (an archetype or Urtext) from which all other derivative and secondary versions sprang was the ultimate task of historical inquiry. Such an Urtext, once unearthed, would then present the true, uncontaminated story of what had happened in the past, and the historian who successfully excavated an Urtype would assume the role of truth teller.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , March 2003 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2003

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References

2. For Oswald Holder-Egger's critical edition of the life, see Ermanrici sermo de vita s. Sualonis dicti soli, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores (hereafter MGH SS) 15/1.151–63 (BHL 7925–26). For a more recent edition of the Latin text with a German translation, see Bauch, Andreas, Quellen zur Geschichte der Diözese Eichstätt, I: Biographien der Gründungszeit, Eichstätter Studien 19 (Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1984), 208–46Google Scholar. For Holder-Egger's views on Ermenrich's style and veracity, see MGH SS 15/1.152: “Gesta Sualonis Ermanrico, qui antea nihil de eo scivit, a Gundhrammo et a quibusdam natu grandioribus, qui sanctum vivum vidisse dicuntur, narrata sunt, sed haec admodum levia et tenuia, partim dubia, partim inepta. Nonnisi quae de auctore et Gundhrammo ex hoc opusculo discimus alicuius momenti sunt. Et haec omnia sermone tam rudi ac mendoso quam turgido ac calamistris vocabulisque inauditis, praesertim Graecis misere corruptis, quasi ornato narrata sunt.”

3. Bruner, Edward M., “Dialogic Narration and the Paradoxes of Masada,” in Text, Play, and Story: The Construction and Reconstruction of Self and Society, 1983 Proceedings of The American Ethnological Society (Washington, D.C.: American Ethnological Society, 1984), 58Google Scholar. Also discussed by Pierre, Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire,” Representations 26 (1989): 7–25.Google Scholar

4. Bruner, , “Masada and Dialogic Narration,” 65.Google Scholar

5. Thomas, Head, Hagiography and the Cult of the Saints: The Diocese of Orléans, 800–1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 110–11Google Scholar, discusses the Carolingian hermit paradigm. See also Joseph-Claude, Poulin, L'idéal de sainteté dans l'Aquitaine carolingienne d'après les sources hagiographiques, 750–950 (Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval, 1975), 67–72.Google Scholar

6. Casaretto, Francesco Mosetti, “L'Epistola ad Grimaldum abbatem di Ermenrico di Ellwangen: identità e destinazione, scopo, tipologia redazionale,” Studi medievali 38 (1997): 647–77Google Scholar, surveys the range of scholarly opinions concerning Ermenrich's literary production.

7. “l'élucubration d'une těte dérangé,” Brunhölzl, , Histoire de la littérature latine de moyen age 1/2: L'époque carolingienne, trans. Rochais, H. (Tournhout: Brepols, 1991), 122Google Scholar. Cited by Casaretto, , “L'Epistola,” 649.Google Scholar

8. “Articolato ircocervo,” Casaretto, , “L'Epistola,” 647.Google Scholar

9. “guazzabuglio di erudizione disordinatamente profusa quasi senza senso, abbozzato da un maestro che ha la sola evidente intenzione di fare sfoggio delle proprie conoscenze,” Giulio, D'Onofrio, La teologia carolingia, in Storia della teologia nel Medioevo, 1: I principi, ed. D'Onofrio, G., (Casale Monferrato: Piemme, 1996), 169Google Scholar. Cited by Casaretto, , “L'Epistola,” 648.Google Scholar

10. “der Papierkorb eines karolingischen Gelehrten, der die Bibliotheken von Fulda, der Reichenau und von St. Gallen excerpiert hat,” Schwarz, W., Die Schriften Ermenrichs von Ellwangen, in Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte, 28 (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1969), 182Google Scholar. Cited by Casaretto, , “L'Epistola,” 647.Google Scholar

11. Bauch, , (Quellen zur Geschichte der Diözese Eichstätt, 193) discusses Ermenrich within the context of the Carolingian SchulweisheitGoogle Scholar. There are some diverging opinions as to Ermenrich's value as an historical source. For example, Casaretto, in his analysis of Ermenrich's epistle to abbot Grimald, underscores that it is much more useful to mine such a source for what it reveals about medieval “alterity” than to attempt to pigeon-hole the letter as an example of poor Latin style (”Il problema dell' epistola ad Grimaldum è un problema di “alterità,” ovvero di distanza che la separa dal nostro universo semiologico,” 649).

12. See Head, , Hagiography and the Cult of the Saints, 38 and 118Google Scholar as well as Matthew, Innes, “Introduction: Using the Past, Interpreting the Present, Influencing the Future,” in The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Yitzhak, Hen and Matthew, Innes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 1–8.Google Scholar

13. Specifically, Ermenrich appears to have incorporated his mentor Hrabanus's teachings on Numbers, the Enarrationes in librum Numerorum (ca. 822) into his Vita Sualonis. For the text of the Enarrationes, see Patrologia cursus completus. Series Latina, ed. Migne, J.-P. (Paris, 1886; hereafter PL) 108.587–838Google Scholar. For a discussion of Hrabanus's exegetical works, see Mayke De, Jong, “The Empire as Ecclesia: Hrabanus Maurus and Biblical Historia for rulers,” in Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages, 191–226Google Scholar, and Henri de, Lubac, Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture, trans. Mark, Sebanc (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998), 106–12Google Scholar. For more general discussions of Carolingian exegesis, see Contreni, J. J., “Carolingian Biblical Culture,” in Iohannes Scottus Eriugena: The Bible and Hermeneutics, ed. Carlos, Steel, James, McEvoy, and Gerd Van, Riel (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1996), 1–23Google Scholar and “Carolingian Biblical Studies,” in Carolingian Essays: Andrew W. Mellon Lectures in Early Christian Studies, ed. Uta-Renate, Blumenthal (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1983), 71–98Google Scholar, and Michael, Gorman, “The Commentary on Genesis of Claudius of Turin and Biblical Studies under Louis the Pious,” Speculum 72.2 (04 1997): 279–329Google Scholar. The first of Hrabanus's works on the Pentateuch, the commentary on Genesis, was finished ca. 822 c.E. (Brunhölzl, , Histoire de la littérature latine, 93Google Scholar). The dating for Hrabanus's most important biblical commentaries is ca. 818–22, the time when he was working under abbot Eigil of Fulda (see Rabani Mauri, In Honorem Sanctae Crucis, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis [CCCM] 100, ed. Perrin, M. [Turnholt: Brepols, 1997], vi)Google Scholar. The chronology and the manuscript tradition of these Torah commentaries are notoriously problematic; see Mayke De, Jong, “The Empire as Ecclesia,” 193, n. 5Google Scholar. Here, De Jong discusses the manuscript transmission of Hrabanus's exegetical works. The seventeenth-century edition by George Colvenerius (adapted by Migne in the PL version) remains the standard scholarly version of Hrabanus's corpus as there still is no critical text available. For the extant manuscripts of the Enarrationes, see Burton Edwards's Carolingian Biblical Exegesis web site at http://www2.bc.edu/˜edwardbv/carindex.html.

14. Clark, Elizabeth A. discusses the late antique background of the intersection of biblical exegesis and the rhetoric of asceticism: Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15. For a discussion of the dating of the Vita and its manuscript history, see Holder-Egger, MGH SS 15/1.151–53. See also Wilhelm, Forke, Studien zu Ermenrich von Ellwangen, in Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte 28 (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1969), 6.Google Scholar

16. For an introduction to Ermenrich's life and works, see Eric, Goldberg, Creating a Medieval Kingdom: Carolingian Kingship, Court Culture, and Aristocratic Society under Louis the East Francia (Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1998), 56–57Google Scholar; Johannes, Fried, “Fulda in der Bildungs und Geistesgeschichte des Früheren Mittelalters,” in Kloster Fulda in der Welt der Karolinger und Ottonen, ed. Gangolf, Schrimpf (Frankfurt am Main: Josef Knecht, 1996), 33ffGoogle Scholar; Wattenbach-Levison, , Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter 6: Vorzeit und Karolinger (Weimar: Hermann Bühlaus, 1990), 762–66Google Scholar; Josef, Fleckenstein, Die Hofkapelle der deutschen König (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1959), 179–80Google Scholar; and Dümmler, E., “Über Ermenrich von Ellwangen und seine Schriften,” Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte, 13 (Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1873), 473–85.Google Scholar

17. The Vita S. Hariolfi (ca. 848–54) was dedicated to Gozbald, bishop of Würzburg, and based on Boethius's Consolatio. Text is in MGH SS 10.11–15. Bauch, , Quellen zur Geschichte der Diözese Eichstätt, 193Google Scholar, discusses this Vita as does Franz, Brunhölzl, Histoire de la littérature latine, 120–23Google Scholar. For the epistles, see MGH Epp. 5.534–79 (Epistola ad Grimaldum abbatem) and MGH SS 15/1.153–59 (Epistolae ad Gundrammum diaconum and ad domnum Ruadolfum magistrum).

18. For a discussion of Ermenrich's views on missionary activity in general as well as his specific involvement in the Slavic missions, see Heinz, Löwe, “Ermenrich von Passau, Gegner des Methodius. Versuch eines Persönlichkeitsbildes,” in Salzburg und die Slawenmission: zum 1100. Todestag des hl. Methodius, ed. Heinz, Dopsche, Beiträge des internationalen Symposions vom 20. bis 22. 09 1985 in Salzburg (Salzburg: Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde, 1986), 221–41.Google Scholar

19. Vita 1 (MGH SS 15/1.157): “quo ipse de gente Anglorum magistrum suum, sanctum scilicet Bonifarium archiepiscopum, prosecutus, hanc in patriam.” See also Friedrich, Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum im Frankenreich: Kultur und Gesellschaft in Gallien, den Rheinlanden und Bayern am Beispiel der monastischen Entwicklung, 4 bis 8. Jahrhundert (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1988), 511.Google Scholar

20. See Wood, , Merovingian Kingdoms, 306Google Scholar. Goldberg, (Creating a Medieval Kingdom, 5, n. 9) argues that it is impossible to use Germany in its modern geographical sense for the Frankish empire, but that Carolingian writers did ocassionally use the classical designation Germania. Solnhofen itself was located in southeastern East Francia near the borders of Bavaria. Its diocesan center, Eichstätt, was in Bavaria.Google Scholar

21. Vita 2 (MGH SS 15/1.157–58): “At vero iste soli Domino ymnis ac orationibus vacare desiderans—et ob puto eum Solum ex divina providentia nuncupatum—heremum petiit et solitudinem amavit.” For Ermenrich's treatment of the hagiographical topos of the conflict between the active life and the contemplative life, see Jean, LeClercq, “Problèmes de l'érémitisme, Studia monastica 5 (1963): 197–212.Google Scholar

22. Vita 5 (MGH SS 15/1.158). For a discussion of the archaeological evidence at Solnhofen, see David, Parsons, “Some Churches of Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Southern Germany: A Review of the Evidence,” Early Medieval Europe 8.1 (1999): 31–67.Google Scholar

23. Vita 6 (MGH SS 15/1.159).

24. Vita 10 (MGH SS 15/1.161). Gundram was not the first successor to Sualo's little hut, for he replaced another provost named Santharat. See Bauch, , Quellen zur Geschichte der Diözese Eichstätt, 192Google Scholar. For a brief discussion of the monastic history of Solnhofen, see Josef, Hemmerle, Die Benediktinerklöster in Bayern, in Germania Benedictina 2 (Augsburg: Kommissionsverlag Winfried-Werk, 1970), 292–94.Google Scholar

25. Vita 10 (MGH SS 15/1.161). Noted by Goldberg, , Creating a Medieval Kingdom, 57.Google Scholar

26. For discussions of Boniface and his mission, see Wood, Ian N., The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450–751 (London: Longman, 1994), 304–6Google Scholar and Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., The Frankish Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), 150–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For pilgrimage to Fulda, see Bat-Sheva, Albert, Le pèlerinage à l'époque carolingienne, Bibliothèque de la Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 82 (Bruxelles: Éditions Nauwelaerts, 1999), 215.Google Scholar

27. See Appleby, David F., “Rudolf, Abbot Hrabanus, and the Ark of the Covenant Reliquary,” The American Benedictine Review 46.4 (1995): 428.Google Scholar

28. The author would like to thank Eric Goldberg (Williams College) for this point. This “larger attempt” also would include Rudolf of Fulda's more famous Vita of the holy woman and missionary, Leoba (MGH SS 15/1 122–31) and his Miracula sanctorum in Fuldenses ecclesias translatorum (MGH SS 15/1.328–41). Also, there are many parallels between the Vita of Sualo and the Life of the missionary S. Gall, a member of the Columbanus circle (MGH SRM 4.251–337).

29. Vita, introduction (MGH SS 15/1.157): “Et dum usque hodie Maronis ac Homeri inutiles fabulae a christianis viris lectitantur, cur non magis libet perscrutari dicta ac facta maiorum, ad quorum tumbas sedulo procumbimus, divinam clementiam implorantes, quatenus per intercessionem eorum qui iam sunt in caelo cum eo coronati nos, qui adhuc in dubio scammate assistimus, auxiliare ad gloriam sui triumphi dignetur?” Forke discusses Ermenrich's conflicted relationship with the classical past (Studien zu Ermenrich von Ellwangen, 75 and 95).

30. Vita, introduction (MGH SS 15/1.157): “Et quia magnorum heroum omnium acta pensare dignum me fore haud censeo, mei honorabillimi beati Soli sacerdotis Christi vitam ex parte tangendo, licet super meas vires sit, propalare tamen aggrediar.”

31. Vita 6 (MGH SS 15/1.159): “ex quibus pauca, quae ex quodam sene, ipsius sane servitore, in decrepita iam aetate superstite agnovi, annectam narratione subbrevi.”

32. Vita 10 (MGH SS 15/1.162): “Cum itaque ego a viro venerabili domno Altino episcopo, ad cuius diocesim locus ipse pertinet, rogarem, uti sepulchrum beati viri effodiendi et in eodem pavimento aliquanto melius humandi licentiam daret, concessit ut rogavi.”

33. Ermenrich repeatedly defends his use of allegory and bemoans the fact that little is known of the saint's miraculous activities, save for the testimony of a few old men who were living at Solnhofen. Vita 4 (the defense of allegory), Vita 6, 9 (the testimony of the aged witnesses to Sualo's virtus).

34. Vita 1 (MGH SS 15/1.157).

35. This and all subsequent references to the Vulgate Bible are from Alberto, Colunga and Laurentio, Turrado, eds., Biblia Vulgata (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1994)Google Scholar

36. Vita introduction (MGH SS 15/1.156).

37. Vita 1 (MGH SS 15/1.157): “hanc in patriam ceu iubar solis clarissimum delarus est.”

38. Vita 1 (MGH SS 15/1.157): “totam Franciam ac Alamanniam luce fidei.”

39. LeClercq, “Problèmes de l'érémitisme,” 203ff, discusses Ermenrich's treatment of the tension between the vita activa/vita contemplativa.

40. Phrase middle ground taken from U.S. environmental historian Richard, White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Regions, 1650–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)Google Scholar. White defines the middle ground as an abstract cultural space where social, economic, and political accommodation—not acculturation—occurs between two rival groups.

41. The remainder of this section uses the exegetical name, Solus, instead of Sualo.

42. Vita 2 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “et ob hoc puto eum Solum ex divina providentia nuncupatum—heremum petiit et solitudinem amavit.”

43. Vita 3 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “Nempe et ipse locus, quern incoluit, ex eius nomine solitudo dici potest, quern tamen quidam vulgarice Cellam Solonis vocant. Ast ego, salva caeterorum estimatione, dico eum melius monachum, id est Solum, quam Solonem, et cellam ipsam beati Soli quam cellam Solonis posse nuncupari, dum et ipse solus a mundi actibus sequestratus, Deo solo sit coniunctus, solitudo ipsa eo cultore nomen superstite habeat.” Vita 2 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “vero iste soli Domino ymnis ac orationibus vacare desiderans.”

44. Vita 3 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “Plus enim in secreto pectoris sui cubiculo conati sunt Deo placere, quam superficietenus actus suos propalare mallent.” Clearly, Ermenrich is here using a strategy of Neoplatonic exegesis—by enclosing himself in a tiny cell, the holy man opens his body only to divine penetration. For an example of this kind of exegesis, see Origen, , Homilies on Leviticus, Marcel, Borret, trans., Origène: Homélies sur le Lévitique, Sources Chrétiennes 286–87 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1981)Google Scholar. Origen's homilies were extremely influential during the Carolingian Renaissance, particularly on the writings of Hrabanus Maurus. See Lubac, , Medieval Exegesis, 166Google Scholar, and Babcock, Robert G., “Häresie und Bibliothek: Die Fuldaer Handschrift von Origenes' Peri Archon,” in ed. Schrimpf, Kloster Fulda, 299–313.Google Scholar

45. Vita 3 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “dum et ipse solus a mundi actibus sequestratus, Deo solo sit coniunctus.” Leclercq's work on Sualo focuses on the motif of the conflict between the vita activa and the vita contemplativa. He notes that the hagiographer subtly juxtaposes the term illi (“those ones”) for the active ministers vs. ille (“that man”) for the reclusive Sualo. Furthermore, he argues that this is the key to the vita, for Ermenrich negotiates carefully between these two seemingly opposed forms of asceticism without privileging one over the other. See “Problèmes de l'érémitisme,” 203ff.

46. Vita 5 (MGH SS 15/1.158).

47. Vita 5 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “sub sincerissimo humilitatis pallio occultante.”

48. A major theme of Raymond Van, Dam, Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).Google Scholar

49. Vita 6 (MGH SS 15/1.159): “Coeperunt autem et multa miracula Domini gratia tribuente per eum fieri; ex quibus pauca, quae ex quodam sene, ipsius sane servitore, in decrepita iam aetate superstite agnovi, annectam narratione subbrevi.”

50. Vita 6 (MGH SS 15/1.159): “annectam narratione subbrevi.”

51. Vita 7 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “a primis cunabulis.”

52. Vita 7 (MGH SS 15/1.159): “incognitum lumen.”

53. Vita 8 (MGH SS 15/1.159): “Surde et mute, exi a plasma Dei.”

54. Vita 7 (MGH SS 15/1.159): “Cuius hactenus gestatoria in loco datae salutis pendentia ad signum sunt.” Niermeyer, J. F., Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976), 467Google Scholar, translates Ermenrich's use here of gestatoria as “crutches” (vs. the more usual translation of “sedan chair” or “bier”).

55. Vita 7 (MGH SS 15/1.159): “Sed cur hoc de eo clanculum videtur, cum ipse salutiferae medicus salutis est.”

56. Vita 7–8 (MGH SS 15/1.159–60). For a discussion of the hagiographical theme of saint as medicus, see Raymond Van, Dam, Saints and Their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 82–115.Google Scholar

57. For a discussion of Jewish and Christian exegeses of Balaam, see Baskin, Judith R., Pharaoh's Councellors: Job, Jethro, and Balaam in Rabbinic and Patristic Tradition (Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1983), 75–113Google Scholar. See also Geza, Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism: Haggadic Studies, Studia Post-Biblica, vol. 4 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973), 127é77Google Scholar. The Balaam/Sualo narrative is the main feature of Vita 9 (MGH SS 15/1.160–61).

58. Vita 9 (MGH SS 15/1.160): “Sane et hoc miraculum huic opusculo inserendum censui, quod multi vetustiores accolae se meminisse ferunt supradicti pagi.”

59. LeClercq, , “Problèmes de l'érémitism,” 206: “domination exercée sur les animaux.”Google Scholar

60. See Baskin, , Pharoah's Counsellors, 89–91Google Scholar for the rabbinical traditions concerning Balaam. For a discussion of the relationship between Jewish and Christian exegetical traditions, see Clark, , Reading Renunciation, 62–68.Google Scholar

61. For example, Ambrose Epistle 50 (PL 16.1155–59), Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob, 27.2 (PL 76.399) and Homiliae in HiezechielemGoogle Scholar, 9.26 (PL 76.882), and Isidore of Seville, Allegoric quaedam S. scripturae, 67 (PL 83.110). Hrabanus Maurus, who incorporates many of the above patristic interpretations of Balaam into his Explanations of Numbers (822) understood Balaam to be a forerunner of the Magi (PL 108.735): “posset quidem et de illo Balaam intelligi, sed hoc quod Magi illi, qui de Oriente venientes, primi adoraverunt Jesum.” Baskin, (Pharoah's Counsellors, 101–13)Google Scholar discusses the history of patristic exegesis on Balaam. See also Flint, Valerie I. J., The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991), 152, 165–6.Google Scholar

62. Flint, , Rise of Magic, 55–56.Google Scholar

63. Enarrationes in librum Numerorum, PL 108.587–838; section on Balaam, 725–67. In his Epistle 11 (MGH Epp. 5, 397–98) Hrabanus explains that Bishop Freculph of Liseux had asked him to compose a spiritual account of Numbers. For Hrabanus's knowledge of Jewish exegetical traditions, see Jean-Louis, Verstrepen, “Raban Maur et le Judaïsme dans son commentaire sur les quatre livres des rois,” Revue Mabillon 7 (1996): 23—55Google Scholar. And, for an anthropological discussion of Numbers, see Mary, Douglas, In the Wilderness (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993).Google Scholar

64. PL 108.727. In this passage, Hrabanus attempts to understand what the objects (divinacula) the Elders of Moab brought to Balaam were. He therefore muses that perhaps Balaam practiced his art on fairly standard “gentile” magical tripods (tripodas) and caldrons (cortinas).

65. PL 108.730: “Nec mireris, si eum quern diximus scribarum et doctorum populi formam tenere, videas prophetantem de Christo.”

66. PL 108.727: “Igitur Balaam divinculis acceptis, cum solerent daemones ad se venire, fugatos quidem daemones videt, sed adesse Deum; et ideo dicit interrogare se Deum, quia consuetos sibi parare nusquam daemones videt. Venit ergo ipse ad Balaam, non quod dignus esset ad quern veniret Deus, sed ut fugarentur illi qui ei ad maledicendum et male faciendum adesse consueverant. Iam hinc enim providebat Deus populo suo.”

67. PL 108.729: “Si dignus fuisset Balaam, verbum suum Deus non in ore eius, sed in corde posuisset.”

68. PL 108.731. In this passage the abbot describes the role reversal that occurred between the magician and his ass: “quam quodam ipse Balaam, id est, seductori idololatriae, quasi brutum animal et nulla ratione retinens, quo voluit errore, substravit.”

69. Hrabanus is quite insistent on Balaam's depravity: the Mesopotamian prophet is God's enemy (”inimicus Dei,” PL 108.738); he is illuminated by Lucifer (”[Balaam] illuminatus sine dubio ab illo Lucifero,” PL 108.732:); he is a practicioner of the demonic arts (PL 108.727); and Hrabanus also likens him to a brute animal (PL 108.731).

70. PL 108.746: “quae mine propter velamen quod positum est super cor eorum neque vident, neque intelligunt.”

71. PL 108.736.

72. On the hermit topos of the struggle between demonic and divine powers, see Head, , Hagiography and the Cult of Saints, 111.Google Scholar

73. PL 108.731–32 details the conflict between the mons corrupte and the holy mountains of biblical discourse.

74. Ermenrich refers to the Germanic peoples as a plebs sacra in the little hymn to Sualo he attaches to the end of the Vita (MGH SS 15/1.163). The messianic interpretation of Numbers 25:2 was upheld by Jewish and Christian exegetes alike, from Talmud to Hrabanus Maurus. For Hrabanus Maurus's exegesis on Balaam as Christ's prophet, see PL 108.730: “Prophetavit ergo et Balaam de Christo.” Hrabanus, like Origen before him, viewed Balaam's ass as a forerunner of the Christian church. See Baskin, (Pharoah's Counsellors, 106) for Origen's interpretation.Google Scholar

75. Vita 10 (MGH SS 15/1.161): “nisi Dei omnipotentis auxilio atque intercessione beati Soli suffulciremur, vel in articulis pedum vel naribus cruentaremur.”

76. Vita 4 (MGH SS 15/1.158).

77. Vita 10 (MGH SS 15/1.161).

78. Vita 4 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “Sed vox in deserto clamantis direxit viam asperiorem in planiorem.”

79. Vita 5 (MGH SS 15/1.158) adopts the language of the Vulgate description of John the Baptist.

80. Vita 9 (MGH SS 15/1.161): “annectere ociori pennula curavi.”

81. Vita 10 (MGH SS 15/1.161): “Ego namque, frater karissime, impetrante domino meo rege, ex oboedientia patrui ac domini mei karissimi et fratrum eius.”

82. Jerome, Vita Pauli, PL 23.17–30. Gundram, in an epistle to Ermenrich, compares the wonderworking abilities of S. Sualo to those of the great anchorites Antony and Paul: “ita ut aliquem ex prioribus heremicolis, vel Antony vel Paulum in eo mirares, (MGH Epp. 5, 54).” Noted by Fried, , “Fulda in der Bildungs und Geistesgeschichte,” 34.Google Scholar

83. For a discussion of tugurium as an architectural structure built over the tomb of a saint, see John, Crook, The Architectural Setting of the Cult of the Saints in the Early Christian West, c. 300–c. 1200 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 254, n. 61.Google Scholar

84. For the Carolingian ritual of elevatio of a saint's body, see Vauchez, , Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 20.Google Scholar

85. Parsons, , “Some Churches of the Anglo-Saxon Missions,” 57–62 and 66–67.Google Scholar

86. In the 1960s Frantisek, Graus (Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merowinger: Studien zur Hagiographie der Merowingerzeit [Prague: Nakladatelství Ceskoslovenské akademie, 1965]Google Scholar) explored the social ramifications of hagiography as well as its propagandistic qualities. Patrick, Geary (“Saints, Scholars, and Society,” in his Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages [Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1994], 12–13Google Scholar) discusses Graus's contribution to the field of hagiology. For an exploration of the rhetorical and didactic implications of hagiography, see Averil, Cameron, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of a Christian Discourse (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).Google Scholar

87. See Friedrich, Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum, 256–57.Google Scholar

88. Vita 4 (MGH SS 15/1.158): “In pago namque Sualafeldonio ipse locus situs est, habens orientali ex parte flumen quod Altmona nuncupatur, piscibus copiosum et maxime bimanes cancros ebulliens navalique mercimonio aptum.” Charles, Bowlus (Franks, Moravians, and Magyars: The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788–907 [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995], 33–35) discusses the Carolingian expansion into what is modern-day southern GermanyGoogle Scholar. He also notes that fishing rights “were among the most sought after privileges in this region” (43).

89. Vita 4 (MGH SS 15/1.158). Solnhofen remains a famous stone quarry to this day.

90. Vita introduction (MGH SS 15/1.157): “Et dum usque hodie Maronis ac Homeri inutiles fabulae a christianis viris lectitantur.”

91. Vita introduction (MGH SS 15/1.156): “In paganorum itaque multorum panagericis dum multos scenico more viventes ita poeticis figmentis conperimus, perlectis eorum actibus, laudatos, ut stolida mente et penitus a lumine fidei caeca eos in deos transtulissent.”

92. De magicis artibus (PL 110.1095–1110) and Enarrationes in librum Numerorum (PL 108.725–67).

93. Maria-Elisabeth, Brunert, “Fulda als Kloster in eremo,” in Schrimpf, ed., Kloster Fulda, 59–78Google Scholar, discusses the hagiographical representations of Fulda as an ascetic “desert.”

94. Prinz, , Frühes Mönchtum, 511Google Scholar: “So bestätigen die Quellen die Notwendigkeit der Trennung zwischen der herrscherfreundlichen fränkischen Historiographie und Hagiographie under der angelsächsischen, hinsichtlich des Herrscherkultes wesentlich ‘neutraleren’ Hagiographie des Festlandes. Ebenso bezeichnend ist es auf der anderen Seite, dass im Sola-Leben, das Ermenrich of Ellwangen um 839/842 verfasste, die Karolinger rühmliche Erwähnung finden. Ermenrich war ein Schüler des Hrabanus Maurus und des Magisters Rudolf in Fulda und verbrachte später längere Zeit am Hofe Ludwigs des Deutschen in Regensburg; so nimmt es nicht Wunder, dass in dieser Vita aus karolingischer Sicht die frühere angelsächisische Distanz zum Herrscherhaus fehlt.” For Louis the German's acquisition of Fulda and Hrabanus's subsequent retirement, see De, Jong, “Hrabanus Maurus and Biblical Historia for Rulers,” 208–9Google Scholar, and Goldberg, , Creating a Medieval Kingdom, 75Google Scholar

95. Vita 10 (MGH SS 15/1.161): “Simul et hoc scito, quod hanc querimoniam nulli hominum antea planxi, sed neque tibi, nisi quod obtrusa angustia familiariter dissoluta solet deinceps frequenter levius portari.”

96. Vita, introduction (MGH SS 15/1.156): “non ficta, sed veraciter facta.”

97. Vita 6 (MGH SS 15/1.159) and Vita 9 (MGH SS 15/1.160).

98. Vita 4 (MGH SS 15/1. 158): “Quae quamvis typica sint, huic tamen caelicolae loco non inconvenienter aptari possunt.”

99. Vita 10 (MGH SS 15/1.163): “quod denarius et quaternarius numerus figurat, scilicet ut, qui in concordia decalogi et evangelii totam vitam suam duxerat, tali sylogismo subiaceat.”

100. Bruner, , “Masada and Dialogic Narrative,” 72–73Google Scholar, explores the relationship between the immovable mountain of Masada and the authoritative interpretation of the events that took place there in 73 C.E.

101. For a discussion of the role of memory in medieval culture, see Mary, Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), especially chapter 1, “Models for the Memory,” 16–45.Google Scholar