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Lay Sanctity in the Central Middle Ages, 970–1120

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2020

ADRIAN CORNELL DU HOUX
ADRIAN CORNELL DU HOUX*
Affiliation:
Norwich School, 71a The Close, NorwichNR1 4DD
*
E-mail: acornell@norwich-school.org.uk
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Abstract

This article surveys a collection of lay saints who were neither martyrs nor born into a royal family to show that, despite previous assumptions, this type of sainthood was possible before developments of the twelfth century. Two main themes emerge from their cults, namely an attempt to promote pious role models for the lay aristocracy and the growth of pilgrimage as an expression of wider devotion. The cults are also situated in the context of the Gregorian reform movement, showing that they contribute to a picture of clergy and laity working symbiotically rather than in opposition.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 738 - 754
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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References

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5 Almost everyone writing on Gerald has commented on the uniqueness of his sanctity. For full bibliographies see the works cited in n. 3.

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49 De s. Davino, AS, Iunii i. 327–36 at § 2, p. 330; cf. Matthew xix.21, Mark x.21, Luke xviii.22. His Armenian origins may have been added slightly after the original composition: see the editorial annotations at De s. Davino, § 2, p. 330, and Bacci, M., ‘An Armenian pilgrim in medieval Italy: cult and iconography of St Davinus of Lucca’, in Hayagitut ʿyan ardi vichakě ev zargats ʿman heṛankarnerě / Armenian Studies Today and Development Perspectives, Yerevan 2004, 548–58Google Scholar at p. 551.

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62 ‘nouo atque insolito martyrii genere … noua atque inaudita fere uictoria’; ‘uirtus … propter insolitam nouitatem magis placet ecclesiae’: Damian, Peter, Sermones, ed. Lucchesi, G., CCCM lvii, Turnhout 1983, no. 28, pp. 161–70Google Scholar at pp. 168, 169.

63 ‘Serve Dei, respice in me et fac mihi misericordiam, quia pauper sum et peregrinus, et iube me suscipi in domo tua, et pascar de micis quae cadunt de mensa tua, ut Deus benedicat annos tuos et ei, quem habes in peregrinatione, misereatur’: BHL 286, § 34, p. 423.

64 BHL 286, § 36, p. 425; cf. Vie de saint Alexis, § 50, p. 105.

65 ‘qualiter conversatus fuerit in peregrinatione’: BHL 286, § 44, p. 427.

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74 There is a useful list, although it contains some errors, in P. Delooz, Sociologie et canonisations, Liège 1969, 440–59. Also essential is Philippart, G. and Goullet, M. (eds), Hagiographies: histoire internationale de la littérature hagiographique latine et vernaculaire en Occident des origines à 1550, Turnhout 1994Google Scholar– .

75 James, M. R., ‘Lives of St Walstan’, Norfolk Archaeology xix (1917), 238–67Google Scholar at pp. 238–43; Duffy, E., The stripping of the altars: traditional religion in England, c.1400–c.1580, 2nd edn, New Haven, Ct 2005, 200–5Google Scholar. There is an interesting parallel in a Spanish lay saint from after this period, Isidore the Farmer (d. 1130): De s. Isidoro agricola, AS, Maii iii. 512–50.

76 These include the story from Carinthia of Agatha Hildegarde (allegedly d. 1024), which is recounted from oral legend in De s. Agatha Hildegarde Palatina Carinthiae, AS, Februarii i. 721–3; Irmengard of Süchteln (d. c. 1089), whose record is late medieval: De b. Irmgarde virgine comitissa Zutphaniae, AS, Septembris ii. 270–8; and Sebald of Nuremberg: De s. Sebaldo eremita, AS iii. 762–75. See also Vauchez, Sainthood, 66, 83–4, 264.

77 ‘novum … salutis promerendae genus’: Guibert of Nogent, Dei gesta per Francos, ed. R. B. C. Huygens, CCCM cxxviiA, Turnhout 1996, 87.

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80 Hamilton, Church and people, 15–22, 60–160; Miller, ‘New religious movements’.

81 Donizo, Vita di Matilde di Canossa, ed. and Italian trans. P. Golinelli, Milan 2008.

82 Barrow, J., ‘Ideas and applications of reform’, in Noble, T. F. X. and Smith, J. M. H. (eds), The Cambridge history of Christianity, III: Early medieval Christianities, c. 600–c.1100, Cambridge 2008, 345–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.