Mechthild Gretsch, AElfric and the Cult of Saints in Late Anglo-Saxon England

Medium Aevum, Spring-Summer, 2008 by Daniel Anlezark

Mechthild Gretsch, AElfric and the Cult of Saints in Late Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 34 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), xi 263 pp. ISBN-10 0-521-85541-1. 50.00 [pounds sterling].

Mechthild Gretsch's study of AElfric and the cult of saints offers a fascinating insight into not only AElfric's technique as a hagiographer, but also his place in the development and evolution of saints' cults and attendant hagiographies in Anglo-Saxon England. While this book is certainly concerned with AElfric, it is concerned with much more. Gretsch discusses AElfric's sources in detail, and sight is never lost of the fact that he was a writer working within a tradition, and also within a political environment of national consolidation and religious reform.

Five saints are chosen in a way which at first seems almost random--Gregory the Great, Cuthbert, Benedict, Swithun, and AEthelthryth feature in the iconography of the Benedictional of St AEthelwold. However, as this study shows, for the great reforming monastic bishop such an iconographic gathering is far from accidental. From this launching point, Gretsch studies the history of the cults of these saints in the English Church (and occasionally its continental daughters), with the focus in each case ending with the presentation of the five saints in the homilies and saints' lives written by/Elfric of Eynsham, AEthelwold's pupil. A working assumption, which Gretsch herself interrogates at the end of this study, is that the two men shared an understanding of the importance and role of the cults of these saints. In her introductory chapter Gretsch notes the points of intersection and divergence between AElfric's sanctorale and the feasts included in the Benedictional: the intersection certainly indicates a common purpose, while the divergence invites investigation.

The five saints Gretsch considers in detail form a case study, which in the end leaves a great deal of room for further investigation. AElfric offers a rationale for the interest in some saints--the national celebration of their cults--which in historical context suggests a tension between the fostering of certain cults by the Benedictine reformers, and the practice of these cults in the centuries leading up to the Reform. Swithun and AEthelthryth are treated here as 'new' saints, which in terms of a national cult at the turn of the millennium is true. Gretsch's discussion of evidence for the cult of Cuthbert in Wessex from Alfred to AEthelstan is fascinating, though she points out that the manuscript evidence for interest in Cuthbert's vernacular life after AElfric may suggest some ambivalence towards his cult in the south. The importance of Benedict to the monastic revival could never be in question, though the treatment of the saint by both the Benedictional artist and AElfric suggests a careful recrafting of Benedict's image for different audiences. Gretsch's close command of the sources, aided by excellent recent editions such as those of AElfric's Catholic Homilies (by Godden and Clemoes) and Lapidge's Cult of Saint Swithun, provides a detailed picture of what ASlfric is doing. In relation to the five saints studied in detail here, AElfric's dislike of duplication becomes apparent, so that Cuthbert is presented as a 'solitary saint and demon fighter', while his roles as bishop and preacher are suppressed and exemplified better elsewhere. This desire to avoid repetition, however, is at odds with AElfric's duplications, with multiple commemorations for SS Peter, Paul, Martin, and others. As Gretsch notes, there is still much work to be done, especially towards understanding AElfric's anthological principles in his collections of saints' lives.

DANIEL ANLEZARK

Sydney