The handling and interpretation of dreams and visions in late sixth- to eighth-century Gallic and Anglo-Latin hagiography and histories

Early Medieval Europe

Volumn 13, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 227-248

  Keskiaho, Jesse ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI   (Finland)

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EID: 27844575689     PISSN: 09639462     EISSN: 14680254     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0254.2005.00157.x     Document Type: Review

References (210)

1. See the fundamental P. Dinzelbacher, Vision und Visionsliteratur im Mittelalter, Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 2.3 (Stuttgart, 1981);
2. more recently C. Carozzi, Le voyage de l'âme dans l'au-delà d'après la literature latine V'XIII' siècle, Collection de l'ecole française de Rome 189 (Rome, 1994);
3. also J.J. Contreni, '"Building Mansions in Heaven" The Visio Baronti, Archangel Raphael, and a Carolingian King', Speculum 78 (2003), pp. 673-706.
4. e siècles)', in T. Gregory (ed.), I sogni nel medioevo. Seminario internazionale Roma, 2-4 ottobre 1983, Lessico intellettuale Europeo 35 (Rome, 1985), pp. 171-215.
5. For an overview see M.E. Wittmer-Butsch, Zur Bedeutung von Schlaf und Traum im Mitte-lalter, Medium Aevum Quotidianum Sonderband 1 (Krems, 1990);
6. S.F. Kruger, Dreaming in the Middle Ages, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 14 (Cambridge, 1992).
7. e siècles 23 (1981), pp. 1:09-30.
8. P.E. Dutton, The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire (Lincoln, NE, 1994).
9. Cf. H.J. Kamphausen, Traum und Vision in der lateinische Poesie der Karolingerzeit, Lateinische Sprache und Literatur des Mittelalters 4 (Bern, 1975).
10. J.-C. Schmitt, Les revenants. Les vivants et les morts dans la société médiévale ([Paris], 1994).
11. On dreams in classical and Christian antiquity see E.R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 37-68;
12. J.S. Hanson, 'Dreams and Visions in the Graeco-Roman World and Early Christianity', in W. Haase (ed.), Aufstieg und Niedergand der römischen Welt. Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung 7/13.1 (Berlin, 1980), pp. 1395-427;
13. M. Foucault, Histoire de la sexualité 2: L'Usage des plaisirs ([Paris], 1984), pp. 17-50;
14. P.C. Miller, Dreams in Late Antiquity (Princeton, NJ, 1994);
15. and G.G. Stroumsa, 'Dreams and Visions in Early Christian Discourse', in D. Schulman and G.G. Stroumsa (eds), Dream Cultures. Explorations in the Comparative History of Dreaming (New York, 1999), pp. 189-211.
16. Le Goff, 'Le christianisme et les rêves', p. 211: 'l'incapacité de l'Église à fournir au chrétien des critères de distinction d'origine et donc de valeur des rêves conduit à faire refouler ses rêves par le rêveur. La société chrétienne du haut Moyen Âge est une société de rêveurs frustrés.' All translations by the present author, unless otherwise indicated.
17. See further J. Le Goff, 'Rêves', in J. Le Goff and J.-C. Schmitt (eds), Dictionnaire raisonné de l'occident medieval ([Psais], 1999), pp. 950-68;
18. J.-C. Schmitt, 'The Liminality and Centrality of Dreams in the Medieval West', in Schulman and Stroumsa (eds), Dream Cultures, pp. 174-87;
19. J. Le Goff and N. Truong, Une histoire du corps au Moyen Âge ([Paris], 2003), pp. 86-93.
20. I. Moreira, Dreams, Visions, and Spiritual Authority in Merovingian Gaul (Ithaca, NY, 1000), pp. 11-38 and 225-7.
21. For an earlier approach with similar observations, see G. de Nie, Views from a Many-Windowed Tower. Studies of Imagination in the Works of Gregory of Tours (Amsterdam, 1987), pp. 113-96.
22. I. Moreira, 'Dreams and Divination in Early Medieval Canonical and Narrative Sources: The Question of Clerical Control', The Catholic Historical Review 89 (2003), pp. 621-42.
23. Cf. early medieval theology of miracles; see W.D. McCready, Signs of Sanctity. Miracles in the Thought of Gregory the Great, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Studies and Texts 91 (Toronto, 1988);
24. and W.D. McCready, Miracles and the Venerable Bede, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Studies and Texts 118 (Toronto, 1994).
25. See generally the fundamental P. Brown, The Cult of the Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, The Haskell Lectures in the History of Religions, New Series 2 (Chicago, 1981).
26. See also R. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, 1990);
27. A. Angenendt, Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter (Darmstadt, 1997).
28. Generally, F. Graus, Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merowinger. Studien zur Hagiographie der Merowingerzeit (Prague, 1965);
29. W. Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter II: Merowingische Biographie; Italien, Spanien und die Inseln im frühen Mittelalter, Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters 9 (Stuttgart, 1988);
30. W. Berschin and idem, Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter III: Karolingische Biographie; 750-020 n. Chr., Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters Band 10 (Stuttgart, 1991);
31. D. von der Nahmer, Die lateinische Heiligenvita. Ein Einführung in die lateinische Hagiografie (Darmstadt, 1994).
32. Further, I. Wood, 'Forgery in Merovingian Hagiography', in Fälschungen im Mittelalter. Internationaler Kongreß der MGH, München, 16-19. September 1986, Teil V, MGH Schriften 33:V (Hanover, 1988), pp. 369-84;
33. F. Prinz, 'Der Heilige und seine Lebenswelt, Überlegungen zum gesellschafts-und kulturgeschichtlichen Aussagewert von Viten und Wundererzählungen', in A. Haverkamp and A. Heit (eds), Friedrich Prinz, Mönchtum, Kultur und Gesellschaft - Beiträge zum Mittelalter zum sechzigsten Geburtstag des Autors (München, 1989), pp. 251-68;
34. I. Wood, 'The Use and Abuse of Latin Hagiography in the Early Medieval West', in E. Chrysos and I. Wood (eds), East and West: Modes of Communication. Proceedings of the First Plenary Conference at Merida, The Transformation of The Roman World 5 (Leiden, 1999), pp. 93-109;
35. M. van Uytfanghe, 'Le remploi dans l'hagiographie: une "Loi du Genre" qui étouffe l'originalité?', in Ideologie e pratiche del reimpiego nell'alto medioevo. Settimane 46:1 (Spoleto, 1999), pp. 359-412;
36. C. Cubitt, 'Memory and Narrative in the Cult of Early Anglo-Saxon Saints', in Y. Hen and M. Innes (eds), The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 29-66;
37. A.-M. Helvétius, 'Les saints et l'histoire. L'apport de l'hagiologie à la médievistique d'ajourd'hui', in H.W. Goetz (ed.), Die Aktualität des Mittelalters, Herausforderungen. Historisch-politische Analysen 10 (Bochum, 2000), pp. 135-63.
38. On historiography e.g. D.P. Kirby, 'Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum: Its Contemporary Setting', in Bede and his World. The Jarrow Lectures I-II, 1958-93 (Aldershot 1994), pp. 903-
39. 26; H. Mayr-Harting, 'Bede's Patristic Thinking as a Historian', in A. Scharer and G. Scheibelreiter (eds), Historiographie im frühen Mittelalter, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung (Munich, 1994), pp. 367-74.
40. M. Heinzelmann, Gregor von Tours (538-504) 'Zehn Bücher Geschichte.' Historiographie und Geshellschaftkonzept in 6. Jahrhundert (Darmstadt, 1994).
41. Where available, the probable intended audience and authorial context will be specified in the notes for each source. Generally it appears many Merovingian texts were to have been read aloud to a wide audience, while Anglo-Latin and eighth-century continental texts were increasingly written to be read in smaller, more exclusive and learned monastic or ecclesiastical contexts. See M. van Uytfanghe, 'L'hagiographie et son public à l'époque mérovingienne', Studia Patristica 16 (1985), pp. 54-62;
42. K. Heene, 'Merovingian and Carolingian Hagiography. Continuity or Change in Public and Aims?', Analecta Bollandiana 107 (1988), pp. 415-28;
43. Y. Hen, Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul a.d. 481-751, Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions, Medieval and Early Modern Peoples 1 (Leiden, New York and Cologne, 1995), pp. 20-41;
44. and W. van Egmond, 'The Audience of Early Medieval Hagiographical Texts: Some Questions Revisited', in M. Mostert (ed.), New Approaches to Medieval Communication, Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 1 (Turnhout, 1999), pp. 41-68.
45. See also C. Stancliffe, 'The Miracle Stories in Seventh-Century Irish Saints' Lives', in J. Fontaine and J.N. Hillgarth (eds), Le septiéme siécle, changements et continuities (London, 1992), pp. 87-115, at p. 97.
46. For a previous approach to dreams in hagiography see L.M. Bitel, 'In visu noctis: Dreams in European Hagiography and Histories 400-900', History of Religions 31 (1991), pp. 39-59.
47. Unfortunately, while pointing out the use of hagiography in perpetuating models and promoting discourse, the article is encumbered by its lack of attention to the intellectual and pragmatic contexts of the sources. See also G. Dagron (ed.), 'Rêver de Dieu et parler de soi. Le rêve et son interpretation d'après les sources Byzantines', in Isogni, pp. 37-56;
48. F.E. Consolino, 'Sogni e visioni nell'agiografia tardoantica: modeli e variazioni sul tema', Augustinianum 29 (1989), pp. 237-56.
49. On ambiguity between waking visions and dreams, and the necessity of studying both, see Hanson, 'Dreams', p. 1408;
50. Schmitt, Les revenants, p. 252;
51. Stroumsa, 'Dreams', p. 189.
52. II Corinthians XI.14.
53. Grégoire Le Grand, Dialogues, tome III, IV.50.4, ed. A. de Vogüé, Sources Chrétiennes 265 (Paris, 1980), pp. 174-6:
54. 'Sancti autem uiri inter inlusiones atque reuelationes ipsas uisionum uoces aut imagines quodam intimo sapore discernunt.' Note that the first time Gregory formulates his views on dreams he is commenting on a passage on Job being haunted by terrible visions, and thus seems to be offering consolation, see Gregorius Magnus, Moralia in Iob, VIII.xxiv.42, ed. M. Adriaen, CCSL 143 (Turnhout, 1979), p. 413.
55. Le Goff, 'Le christianisme et les rêves', pp. 209-11.
56. See Moreira, Dreams, Visions, p. 37, for a brief consideration of a related passage of Gregory's.
57. See Isidorus Hispalensis, Sententiae, III.5, ed. P. Cazier, CCSL III (Turnhout, 1998), pp. 206:
58. 'Saepe fraus Satanae sanctorum cordibus aperitur, quando, per speciem boni angelum se simulans lucis, dum nititur electos decipere, detegitur atque contemnitur.' On the semantics of sanctus, see M. Heinzelmann, 'Sanctitas und "Tugendadel". Zu Konzeptionen von "Heiligkeit" im 5. und 10. Jahrhundert', Francia 5 (1978), pp. 741-51.
59. Gregory's texts were probably intended to be read to laymen, see van Uytfanghe, 'L'hagiographie', pp. 58-60;
60. Gregory the Great on the contrary was writing to teachers, and only indirectly to those taught; see e.g. R. Markus, Signs and Meanings. World and Text in Ancient Christianity (Liverpool, 1997), pp. 52-5.
61. Gregorius Turonensis, Libri IV de virtutibus S. Martini, II.18, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM I:2, 2nd edn (Hanover, 1969), p. 165:
62. 'audito nomine signi sibi semper contrarii'. See also St Augustine, who notes that only spirits that request worship to God, not to themselves, are to be obeyed; Sancti Aurelii Augustini De Civitate Dei libri I-X, X.16, CCSL 47 (Turnhout, 1955), pp. 289-91;
63. cf. I Corinthians XII.3.
64. Sulpice Sévère, Vie de Saint Martin, tome I, c. 24, ed. Jacques Fontaine, Sources Chrétiennes 133 (Paris, 1967), pp. 306-8.
65. See P. Rousseau, Ascetics, Authority and the Church In the Age of Jerome and Cassian (Oxford, 1978), p. 156;
66. Moreira, Dreams, Visions, pp. 57-8.
67. Cf. Le Goff, 'Le christianisme et les rêves', pp. 205-6.
68. E.g. Gregorius Turonensis, Libri historiarum decem, II.21, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM I:1, 2nd edn (Hanover, 1951), p. 67.
69. Gregorius Turonensis, Gloria martyrum, c. 86, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM I:2, 2nd edn (Hanover, 1969), p. 96.
70. Gregorius Turonensis, Liber vitae patrum, c. ix.2, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM I:2, 2nd edn (Hanover, 1969).
71. Gregorius Turonensis, Liber vitae patrum, c. ix.2, ed. Krusch, p. 254.
72. See e.g. the late eighth-century Vita Amandi, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM V (Hanover, 1910), 10, p. 435.
73. An inmudus spiritus appears and tries to drown a servant boy, who calls for Christ to help, only to be taunted by the spirit, who asks, 'Qualis Christus?' The saint then commands the demon in the name of 'Christus, filius Dei vivi, crucifixus'. On dating see É. de Moreau, 'La vita Amandi prima et les fondations monastiques de S. Amand', Analecta Bollandiana 67 (1949), pp. 447-64;
74. and A. Verhulst and G. Declerq, 'L'action et le souvenir de saint Amand en Europe centrale. À propos de la découverte d'une Vita Amandi antiqua', in M. van Uytfanghe and R. Derneulenaere (eds), Aeuum inter utrumque. Mélanges offerts à Gabriel Sanders, professeur émérite à l'Université de Gand, Instrumenta Patristica 23 (Hague, 1991), pp. 503-26.
75. Vita Sancti Cuthberti auctore anonyme, c. ii. 6, ed. B. Colgrave, Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert (New York, 1969), p. 86.
76. Beda Venerabilis, Vita Sancti Cuthberti, c. xiii, ed. Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 198.
77. On these, C.E. Newlands, 'Bede and Images of Saint Cuthbert', Traditio 52 (1997), pp. 73-109.
78. Vita Vulframni, c. 10, ed. W. Levison, MGH SRMV (Hanover, 1910), p. 669.
79. On composition of this monastic text see Wood, 'The Use and Abuse', p. 107.
80. He might be compared to King Eadwine of Northumbria (d. 623), whose conversion is depicted as beginning by accepting Paulinus's interpretation of a dream of his. See B. Colgrave (ed.), The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great by an Anonymous Monk of Whitby (Lawrence, KA, 1968), pp. 99-100.
81. On the text, A. Thacker, 'Memorializing Gregory the Great: The Origin and Transmission of a Papal Cult in the Seventh and Early Eighth Centuries', EME 7 (1998), pp. 59-84.
82. Cf. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, II.12, eds B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969), p. 180.
83. E.g. Gregorius Turonensis, Gloria martyrum, c. 86, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM I:2, 2nd edn (Hanover, 1969), p. 96.
84. Martin of Braga, for example, recommends the use of the Cross, the Credo and the Pater noster against demons; Martinus Bracarensis, De correctione rusticorum, ed. Claude W. Barlow, Martini Episcopi Bracarensis opera omnia, Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome 12 (New Haven, CT, 1950), 16, pp. 19-10.
85. Also, Y. Hen, 'Martin of Braga's De correctione rusticorum and its Uses in Frankish Gaul', in E. Cohen and M.B. de Jong (eds), Medieval Transformations. Texts, Power and Gifts in Context, Cultures, Beliefs, Tradition. Medieval and Early Modern Peoples 11 (Leiden, 2001), pp. 34-49;
86. J. Chélini, L'Aube du Moyen Âge. Naissance de la chrétiénte occidentale. La vie religieuse des laïcs dans l'Europe carolingienne (750-900) (Paris, 1991), pp. 74-6.
87. P. Brown, 'Relics and Social Status in the Age of Gregory of Tours', in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, CA, 1981), pp. 112-50, at p. 231.
88. See also Peter Dinzelbacher, 'Der Kampf der Heiligen mit den Dämonen', in Santi e demoni nell'alto medioevo occidentale (secoli V-XI), Settimane 36 (Spoleto, 1989), pp. 647-96, at pp. 677-9.
89. Gregorius Turonensis, Gloria martyrum, c. 47, ed. Krusch, pp. 70-1.
90. See Brown, 'Relics and Social Status', p. 132: 'reverentia [as opposite to rusticitas] meant . . . taking one's dreams seriously even if they involved having to move out of a cottage because a relic had spent the night in its granary'.
91. Cf. Moreira, 'Dreams and Divination', p. 626
92. who hesitates to interpret a similar story (Gloria confessorum, c. 18, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM I:2, p. 308) in this way. There also, however, the dreamer is clearly portrayed as needlessly forgetful ('inruentibus aliis cogitationibus, tradidit oblivioni quae viderat), rather than wisely sceptical, of the dream. Only when the apparitions returned, 'vultu minaci terribiliter conminantes', did the man comply.
93. e siecle)', reprinted in Un Autre Moyen Âge ([Paris], 1999), pp. 127-39;
94. A.J. Gurjewitsch, Stumme Zeugen des Mittelalters. Weltbild und Kultur der einfachen Menschen (Weimar, 1997), pp. 18-24.
95. On laity, Heinzelmann, 'Sanctitas', p. 744;
96. Chélini, 'L'Aube', pp. 33-41.
97. Gregorius Turonensis, Virtutibus Martini, III.41, ed. Krusch, p. 191:
98. 'Facilis autem prima visio viro fuit, nec nec secunda commonitio valuit; tertia enim terribiliter monachum quatit.' Cf. ibid., I.35, p. 155.
99. On beds as secondary relics see Prinz, 'Der Heilige', p. 167.
100. Augustine cites Livy on a pagan example of such a dream; see De Civitate Dei, IV.24, p. 120.
101. Cf. Genesis XLI.32. On the triple dream as a topos see A. de Vogüé, 'Grégoire Le Grand, lecteur de Grégoire de Tours?', Analecta Bollandiana 94 (1976), p. 232.
102. On Byzantine views Dagron, 'Rêver de Dieu', p. 41, n. 19.
103. Vita Eligii, 11.76
104. ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM IV (Hanover, 1902), p. 738:
105. 'illa neglegenter visionem obliviscents, vir eius atrocius cruciatur dolore'. Cf. B. Krusch, MGH SRM IV, ibid., 11.41.
106. See Heene ('Merovingian and Carolingian', p. 424) who suggests that the text was intended for lay congregations.
107. Vita Landiberti vetustissima, c. 20,
108. ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM VI (Hanover, 1913), pp. 373-4.
109. While Krusch and Levison suggest Vita Eligii 11.39 and 11.41 as models for the story, the passage cited above also appears likely.
110. On composition, e.g. W. Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil II, pp. 80-2.
111. Isidore, Sententiae, III.6, ed. Cazier, p. 218: 'Quamuis nonnulla uera sint somnia, facile tamen eis credi non opus est.'
112. On the nature of Gregory's cult and the contexts of this text, see Thacker, 'Memorializing Gregory the Great'.
113. Colgrave (ed.), The Earliest Life, pp. 102-5: 'sciens esse somniorum fallatia multimoda . . . dimisit rem . . . validius admonitus, alteri e suis sicut illi monstratum est, retulit fratribus. Sed ipse eodem quo diximus modo agnoscit somnium eum fecit quid esset dimittere . . . eumque flagello satis redargutione correxit . . . increpans . . . "Nonne bis indicavi tibi quid debes facere et neglexisti?'" Colgrave's translation.
114. Cf. Colgrave, The Earliest Life, ibid., p. 126, for a forceful reminder of the importance of heeding apparitions.
115. Such stories, underlining the importance of respecting ecclesiastical property, appear throughout the Middle Ages, see Graus, Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger, p. 87;
116. G. Duby, 'Pouvoir prive, pouvoir public', in Georges Duby (ed.), Histoire de la vie privée vol. 2. De l'Europe féodale à la. Renaissance, 2nd edn (Paris, 1999), pp. 44-5.
117. On Carolingian instances see Dutton, The Politics, pp. 168-72.
118. Grégoire Le Grand, Dialogues, IV. 50, 6,
119. ed. de Vogüé, p. 174: 'Sed nimirum cum somnia tot rerum qualitatibus alternent, tanto eis credi difficilius debet, quanto et ex quo inpulsu ueniant facilius non elucet.'
120. Isidore, Sententiae, III.6, ed. Cazier, p. 218: 'Tam facile igitur somniis fides habenda non est, ne forte Satanas, in angelum lucis se transformans, quemlibet incautum fallat, et aliqua erroris fraude decipiat.'
121. Dagron, 'Rêver de Dieu', pp. 46-7;
122. P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom. Triumph and Diversity AD 200-1000 (Cambridge, MA, 1996), p. 149.
123. On the shrines of saints see Brown, The Cult, pp. 106-19;
124. on the so-called incubatio dreams see Le Goff, 'Le christianisme et les rêves', pp. 191-3 and 107-8;
125. M. Wittmer-Butsch, 'Pilgern zu himmlischen Ärtzten: "Historische und psychologische Aspekte früh- und hochmittelalterliche Mirakelberichte'", in Wallfahrt und Alltag in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit, internationales Round-Table-Gespräch, Krems and der Donau 8. Oktober 1990, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften philosophisch-historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte 592 (1992), pp. 137-54;
126. Moreira, Dreams, Visions, pp. 131-5. Gregory of Tours at least held the authentication or explication of such dreams secondary to the importance of connecting the subsequent cure to a saint;
127. see e.g. Virtutibus Martini, 11.31, ed. Krusch, p. 170; for a later example, still from a text directed to the laity,
128. see Ursmarus, Passio II Leudegarii, c. 23, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM V (Hanover, 1910), p. 349.
129. On date see P. Fouracre, 'Merovingian History and Merovingian Hagiography', Past and Present 127 (1990), pp. 3-38, at p. 17;
130. cf. Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil II, pp. 69-72.
131. Cf. M. Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte und andere Quellen des Reliquienkultes, Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge occidental 33 (Turnhout, 1979)1 p. 65. However, while Gregory of Tours surely considered many dreams integral to his arguments, he rarely appears to feel a need to justify them, unlike many eighth-century authors.
132. De virtutibus Geretrudis, c. 2,
133. ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM II (Hanover, 1888), p. 465: 'in eodem habitu atque in eadem specie, qua ipsa formata fuerat . . . "certam tene hanc visionem et sine ulla ambiguitate scias me hodie in hac eadem ora absolutae de habitaculo carnis huius" . . . inter alia conloquia . . . interrogavit episcopum de sancta Geretrude, in quale habitu vel ordine vel specie ipsa fuisset. At ille statim per ordinem narravit staturam corporis eius et speciem decoris eius. Tune beata Modesta intellexit ex signa, que ab episcopo audierat, verum esse, quod ante viderat.' The saint's ascetic choice of funerary dress
134. (see B. Effros, 'Symbolic Expressions of Sanctity: Gertrude of Nivelles in the Context of Merovingian Mortuary Custom', Viator 27 (1996), pp. 1-10) might have influenced the author's focus - probably identical to that of the vita - on her appearance in the vision, although there is no overlap here with the vocabulary used in the vita to describe her funerary apparel.
135. Vita Boniti, c, 32,
136. ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM VI (Hanover, 1913), p. 135: 'mihi in eadem nocte, qua vos oppido Lugdunense introistis, vir Domini in visum veste, qua aliquando solitus erat indui, apparuit, qui et dixit mihi . . . "Noli me", ait, "inquitare modo, quia, cum redire voluero, ego nuntiabo." Unde certum tenui, quod peticio nostra non meruisset effectum.' On the text, perhaps written for the protagonist's translation, and the saint
137. see I. Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751 (London, 1994), pp. 81-2 and 134-44.
138. Bede's Ecclesiastical History, V.9, eds Colgrave and Mynors, pp. 476-8: 'cum expletis . . . hymnis matutinalibus in lectulo membra posuissem, ac leuis mihi somnus obrepsisset, apparuit magister quondam meus et nutritor amantissimus Boisil, interrogauitque me, an eum cognoscere possem. Aio: "Etiam; tu es enim Boisil." . . . ne forte inlusoria esset uisio. Ipse autem tacitus rem considerans, ueracem esse timebat; nee tarnen a praeparando itinere . . . cessare uolebat.' Colgrave's translation.
139. Cf. Bitel, 'In visu noctis', p. 55, for an arguably mistaken reading.
140. Bede's Ecclesiastical History, V.9, eds Colgrave and Mynors, pp. 478: 'tametsi certus est factus de uisione'. Colgrave's translation.
141. The Carolingian description of the translation of St Germanus of Paris 'proves' a vision instigating the translation with external 'facts'. An unnamed Parisian woman had gone to the then extra muros church of St Vincent (St Germain des Prés), intending to pray. Following an apparition into the locked church, she witnessed an angelic multitude around the sepulchre of St Germanus. She approached the most handsome figure, 'cui quasi recognito ait: "sanctissime domine Germane" ', apparently identifying the figure through the context. The saint told her to remind the abbot how already twenty years ago he had appeared and demanded to be moved behind St Stephen's altar. Tellingly the author presents two indices as proof of the authenticity of the vision. First, the number of years since the saint's last apparition was only known to the abbot. Second, 'seu quia etiam omni tune congregationi, quod in altare sanctae cruces beati Stephani reliquae fuerint, adhuc manebat incognitum, nisi eas postmodum sagax inquisitio prodidisset', i.e. that the authorities had in fact been able to find something that could be claimed as the forgotten relics of St Stephen. Translatio Germani vetustissima, c. 1,
142. ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM VII. (Hanover, 1920), pp. 423-4.
143. See also Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte, p. 96;
144. and J. Dérens, 'Les origines de Saint-Germain des Prés. Nouvelle étude sur les deux plus anciennes chartres de l'abbaye', Journal des savants (1973), pp. 28-60.
145. Eigil Fuldensis, Vita Sturmi, c. 16,
146. ed. P. Engelbert, Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Komission für Hessen und Waldeck 29 (1968), p. 149: 'revelationem sancti marryris credere prius nullatenus voluit'.
147. On composition see also W. Heßler, 'Zur Abfassungszeit von Eigils Vita Sturmi', Hessisches Jahrbuch f̈r Landesgeschichte 9 (1959), pp. 1-17. Lull's refusal to believe could be seen as an attack on his character.
148. On hostilities between Fulda and Mainz see Wood, 'The Use and Abuse', p. 106.
149. Moreira, 'Dreams and Divination', pp. 634-41. For biblical models see e.g. Luke 1.26-38; cf. Judges XIII.3-9.
150. See also L. Zoepf, Das Heiligen-Leben im 10. Jahrhundert, Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance 1 (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 40-53;
151. E. Gianarelli, 'Sogni e visioni dell'infanzia nelle biografie dei santi: Fra tradizione classica e innovazione cristiana', Augustinianum 29 (1989), pp. 213-35;
152. von der Nahmer, Das lateinische Heiligenvita, p. 75;
153. Rohr, 'Hagiographie als historische Quelle. Ereignisgeschichte und Wunderberichte in der Vita Columbani des lonas von Bobbio', Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 103 (1995), pp. 22.9-64, at p. 2.63, n. 174.
154. On the first Merovingians see E. Ewig, 'Die Namengebung bei den ältesten Frankenkönigen und im merowingischen Königshaus, mit genealogischen Tafeln und Notizen', Francia 18 (1991), pp. 11-69.
155. Chronicon quae dicuntur Fredegarii scholastici, III.12, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM II (Hanover, 1888), p. 97.
156. On the composition see J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (ed.), The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with its Continuations (London, 1960), pp. ix-lxiii.
157. As argued by A.C. Murray, 'Post vocantur Merohingii: Fredegar, Merovech, and "Sacral Kingship" ', in idem (ed.), After Rome's Fall. Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History. Essays Presented to Walter Goffart, (Toronto, Buffalo and London, 1998), pp. 121-51, at pp. 150-2;
158. cf. Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms, p. 39.
159. Already B. Krusch pointed to Daniel VII as the source for the animals. The emphasis on Childeric's virility need not have magical connotations; the idea that abstinence could bring forth visions is known also in Christian ascetic literature, cf. Stroumsa, 'Dreams', p. 204;
160. Moreira, Dreams, Visions, pp. 43-5
161. I. Wood notes that the chronicler in general seems to acknowledge the active and influential role of women in politics, and suggests the text was composed for a female ruler, perhaps Chimnehild of Austrasia; see his 'Fredegar's Fables', in A. Scharer and G. Scheibelreiter (eds), Historiographie im frühen Mittelalter, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung (Munich, 1994), pp. 359-66, here p. 361.
162. Note also that the Middle Ages inherited from antiquity the notion of women as seers, see e.g. Schmitt, 'The Liminality and Centrality', p. 277. Later this was exemplified by the so-called 'Sibylla Tiburtina', appearing in Latin probably in the eleventh century;
163. see Robert McGinn, 'The "Sibylla Tiburtina" in the Middle Ages (With Particular Reference to the Newberry Library Version)', in I. Chirassi Colombo and T. Seppilli (eds), Sibille e linguaggi oracolari. Mito, storia, tradizione. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Macerata-Norcia 20-24 Settembre 1994, (Pisa and Rome, 1998), pp. 603-49.
164. See Dutton, The Politics, pp. 35-6, for pre-Carolingian royal dreams, where this story does not appear.
165. Alcuinus Turonensis, Vita Willibrordi, c. 2, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM VII (Hanover, 1920), p. 117. The text was written for a monastic congregation,
166. see Heene, 'Merovingian and Carolingian', pp. 411-2.
167. While there is no reason to suppose any manual was used here, note that the moon appears also in pagan and pseudo-Christian oneiromancy; cf. 'Somniale Danielis' (M. Semeraro (ed.), Il 'Libro del sogni di Daniele'. Storia di un testo 'proibito' nel Medioevo (Rome, 2002), p. 158),
168. an oneiromantic manual that seems to appear in the west in the ninth and tenth centuries (M. Semeraro (ed.), Il 'Libro del sogni di Daniele'. Storia di un testo 'proibito' nel Medioevo, ibid. pp. 16-20) and thus fall beyond the scope of the present paper.
169. Some authors imply that the mothers who sought no counsel failed to understand the real significance of their symbolic dreams: see e.g. the apparently seventh-century Vita Rusticulae, c. 2, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM IV (Hanover, 1902), p. 340;
170. on dating see Pierre Riché, 'Note d'hagiographie mérovingienne: La vita S. Rusticulae', Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1954), pp. 369-77.
171. Also Bede's Ecclesiastical History, IV.23, eds Colgrave and Mynors, p. 410, on the dream of the mother of St Hild, where Bede gives the mother's interpretation, followed by what he considers the dream's conclusive meaning.
172. See the late seventh- / early eighth-century Adomnán's Life of Columba, III.1, eds A.O. Anderson and M.O. Anderson (Oxford, 1961), p. 464;
173. the (late) eighth-century Vita Eucherii, c. 1, ed. W. Levison, MGH SRM VII (Hanover, 1920), p. 47;
174. and Anso of Lobbes's late eighth-century Vita. Ursmari, c. 1, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM VI (Hanover, 1913), p. 454.
175. Bede's Ecclesiastical History, IV.14, eds Colgrave and Mynors, pp. 414-18.
176. As submitted, regarding representations of clerical control in Anglo-Latin other world visions, by P. Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature in Western England, 600-800, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 3 (Cambridge, 1990), p. 247.
177. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, p. 230.
178. Generally, see R. Markus, 'From Caesarius to Boniface: Christianity and Paganism in Gaul', in Le septiéme siécle, pp. 154-72.
179. Anti-oneiromantic legislation first appears in the so-called Penitential of Theodore, section 1.15.4, ed. P.W. Finsterwalder, Die Canones Theoderici Cantuarensis und ihre Überlieferungsformen (Weimar, 1929), pp. 285-334,
180. that quotes an elaborated Latin version of the Acts of the Council of Ancyra, c. xxiiii, ed. C.H. Turner, Ecclesiae Occidentalis Monumenta Iuris Antiquissima, canonum et conciliorum Graecorum interpretations Latinae II (Oxford, 1907), here p. 112.
181. With the eighth-century missions and reforms such passages appear also on the Continent. See for example Excarpsus Cummeani, c. 7.16, ed. F.W.H. Wasserschieben, Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche (Halle, 1851), pp. 460-92, here p. 482, that takes up the quote from the Acts of Ancyra;
182. Pirmin, 'Scarapsus', 11.22, ed. G. Jecker, Die Heimat des hl. Pirmin, Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens 13 (Münster, 1927), pp. 34-73, that uses anti-oneiromantic passages from Leviticus (XIX.26), Deuteronomy (XVIII.10-11) and Jeremiah (XXIX.8 ff.),
183. and Admonitio Generalis, c. 65, ed. A. Boretius, MGH Leges II: Capitularia regum Francorum I (Hanover, 1883), pp. 52-62, here pp. 58-9,
184. that only quotes Deuteronomy. It seems that, as also in the context of the Old Testament passages, only extra-ecclesiastical oneiromancy is meant (pace e.g. Wittmer-Butsch, Zur Bedeutung von Schlaf und Traum, p. 109;
185. Moreira, 'Dreams and Divination, pp. 629-33;
186. cf. Semeraro, Il 'Libro dei sogni', pp. 37-72). However, the emergence of such passages may well have heightened a need to underline the correctness of Christian dream interpretation.
187. See e.g. Heene, 'Merovingian and Carolingian'.
188. MGH Epistolae IV, no. 135, ed. E. Dümmler, (Berlin, 1895), p. 2.04: 'omnibus notissimum est . . . aeque cunctis consuetum . . . a plerisque ignoratum, quia discernere nequeunt, quid sit spiritale, quid intellectuale? . . . Illius spiritus informatus est, ut videret; istius mens inluminata est, ut intellegeret . . . Ideo magis fuit propheta, qui mente intellexit, quam rex, qui spiritu cernebat.' For the biblical stories see Genesis XL.5-XLI.37;
189. and Daniel II. On the Carolingian context see Dutton, The Politics, pp. 39-43;
190. cf. Wittmer-Butsch, Zur Bedeutung von Schlaf und Traum, p. 109.
191. For Augustine's original see De Genesi ad litteram, XII.11, ed. J. Zycha, CSEL 28.iii:1 (Prague, 1894), e.g. pp. 392-4,
192. and Moreira, Dreams, Visions, p. 18, n. 14, and pp. 29-33; and On the Old Testament stories e.g. p. 95.
193. MGH Epistolae III, ed. W. Gundlach, no. 88, p. 625:
194. 'nam numquam legimus speciem hominis alas columbe indutum'. Dutton (The Politics, pp. 39-40)
195. refers also to Hadrian's commentary to the acts of Nicaea II (787; MGH Epistolae V, no. 2, p. 10).
196. On images and dreams in eastern texts see Dagron, 'Rêver de Dieu', pp. 41-3.
197. Western churches also featured suggestive imagery; see C. Hahn, 'Seeing and Believing. The Construction of Sanctity in Early Medieval Saints' Shrines', Speculum 72 (1997), p. 1104.
198. Cf. e.g. Markus, World and Text, pp. 65-70.
199. See also Moreira, 'Dreams and Divination', p. 642;
200. cf. Wittmer-Butsch, Zur Bedeutung von Schlaf und Traum, p. 112: 'Die wiederholten Ermahnungen durch Kirche und Herrscher lassen sogar darauf schließen, daß das Volk dieser besonderen Erfahrungsform sehr große Bedeutung beimaß.'
201. Cf. sanctity and politics, e.g. Fouracre, 'Merovingian History and Hagiography';
202. and Fouracre, idem, 'The Origins of the Carolingian Attempt to Regulate the Cult of Saints', in J. Howard-Johnston and P.A. Hayward (eds), The Cult of the Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1999), pp. 143-65.
203. For Alcuin's warnings, inspired by Ecclesiastes V.6, see Commentaria super Ecclesiasten, ed. J.-P. Migné, PL 100, col. 689;
204. and Dutton, The Politics, pp. 43-5;
205. cf. Wittmer-Butsch, Zur Bedeutung von Schlaf und Traum, pp. 108-12;
206. who seems to overstate the extent of clerical scepticism. Moreira, Dreams, Visions, e.g. pp. 74-5, broaches the subject of a difference between ascetic and 'clerical' attitudes, without delving deeper into the problem.
207. For Augustine see Schmitt, Les revenants, pp. 31-6.
208. Cf. H. Kleinschmidt, Understanding the Middle Ages. The Transformation of Ideas and Attitudes in the Medieval World (Woodbridge, 2000), pp. 18-20.
209. Many practices, condemned as pagan by reform-minded ecclesiasts, were considered quite Christian by the practitioners; see e.g. Markus, 'From Caesarius to Boniface';
210. A.L. Meaney, 'Anglo-Saxon Idolaters and Ecclesiasts from Theodore to Alcuin; A Source Study', Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 5 (1992), pp. 103-25.