Dramatic Ritual and Preaching in Late Anglo-Saxon England Marvin Bradford Bedingfield St. Cross College University of Oxford DPhil Trinity 1999 Abstract Dramatic Ritual and Preaching in Late Anglo-Saxon England Marvin Bradford Bedingfield DPhil St. Cross College Trinity 1999 My thesis involves an examination of the dramatic liturgical ritual of the late Anglo- Saxon period and its relationship to other aspects of Christian worship, especially vernacular preaching. One particular ritual, the I Isilalio Sepu/chri, has received a tremendous amount of attention by critics of early Western drama, who see in it an emergence of the representational mode of drama that characterizes later medieval drama. Because the rest of the Anglo-Saxon liturgy is less 'representational," it has been largely ignored when discussing dramatic ritual, so that the Visiiatio appears singularly brilliant. The Visiialio, however, is driven by the same forces that drive equally dramatic liturgical commemorations year-round, climaxing in but not exclusive to the period around Easter. Beginning with an account of late Anglo-Saxon baptism, I examine the liturgy for the high festivals from Christmas to Ascension Day. For each chapter, I describe the liturgical forms for the day and their intended relationships with the participants, focussing on the establishment of dramatic associations between the celebrants and certain figures in the commemorated events. I then compare the liturgical forms with vernacular treatments of a particular festival, looking both for overt instruction and more subtle influence of the liturgy on the preaching texts. Anglo-Saxon preachers and homilists openly assumed the themes and symbolic images of the dramatic ritual in their attempts to make their congregations understand and take on Christian imperatives. Recursively, vernacular preaching helped solidify the meanings of the symbolic elements of the dramatic ritual and their significance to the lives of Christians. Anglo-Saxon appreciation of the dramatic potential of the liturgy was realized both in creative expansion of the liturgy and in the vernacular preaching texts that identified and enhanced this dramatic dynamic. Acknowledgements I would like to thank first of all my supervisor, Professor Malcolm Godden, without whom this project could not have come to fruition. His contributions are innumerable. Many thanks also to my examiners, Dr. Heather O' Donoghue and Professor Joyce Hill, who have been tremendously helpful both in guidance in the completion of the thesis and in suggestions for further research. I would like to thank my advisors at the University of Georgia, Drs. William Provost, Jonathan Evans, and Jerome Mitchell, under whose tutelage I was first inspired to study liturgical drama and medieval preaching. I owe much to Professor Barbara Raw for some guiding comments at an early stage of this project and to Helen Gittos for some corrections in proofreading and for numerous references. All remaining errors are, of course, mine. Gratitude must also be extended to Dr. Gale Owen-Crocker and to Professor Sarah Larratt Keefer. A generous grant from the Lynne Grundy Memorial Fund enabled me to complete the thesis. I would like to thank my parents, Drs. Rebecca and Thomas Campen, for years of emotional and financial support. Finally, I would like to thank Agnieszka, for everything. M. Bradford Bedingfield St. Cross College, Oxford 111 Dramatic Ritual and Preaching in Late Anglo-Saxon England I. Introduction .................................................................... 1 II. Baptism in Anglo-Saxon England ................................ 17 III. Christmas and Epiphany ............................................ 43 a.) The Christmas Octave ................................ 60 b.) Epiphany ........................................................ 64 IV. Candlemas .................................................................... 74 V. Lenten Piety and Public Penance ................................ 101 a.) Lent .................................................................... 103 b.) Public Penance on the Continent .................... 114 c.) Anglo-Saxon Penance ................................ 125 d.) The Anglo-Saxon Liturgy for Public Penance ....... 140 e.) Anglo-Saxon Penance and Adam .................... 155 VI. Palm Sunday ..................................................................... 165 VII. Holy Week and Easter ............................................. 191 a.) Maundy Thursday ............................................. 192 b.) Good Friday: Adoratio Crucis ..................... 202 c.) The Harrowing of Hell and the Easter Vigil ......... 222 d.) Easter Morning and the Visitatio ..................... 241 VIII. Rogationtide and the Ascension ................................. 259 I.. The End and the Beginning ............................................. 280 a.) The Anglo-Saxon Dramatic Aesthetic ................... 281 .. Bibliography ..................................................................... 284 M. Bradford Bedingfield University of Oxford St. Cross College Trinity 1999 IV Abbreviations ASE Anglo-Saxon England ASPR Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records BC Eleven Old English Rogationtide Homilies (Bazire and Cross 1982) BL British Library CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina CHI ALlfric 's Catholic Homilies: The First Series (Clemoes 1997) CHII ALlfric's Catholic Homilies: The Second Series (Godden 1979) CSASE Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England DBL Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy (Whitaker 1970) EETS Early English Text Society EHR English Historical Review HBS Henry Bradshaw Society ITS Journal of Theological Studies LME ALlfric 's Letter to the Monks ofEynsham (Jones 1998) LSE Leeds Studies in English n.s. new series o.s. original series OEC Old English Corpus OR Ordo romanus / Ordines romani (Andrieu 1931) PMLA Publications of the Modern Language Association of America PL Patrologia Latina s.s. supplementary series SPCK Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge TBL The Baptismal Liturgy (Whitaker 1981) Abbreviations of Liturgical Witnesses Additional 28188 London, BL MS Additional 28188 /Ethelwold The Benedictional of ^Ethelwold (Deshman 1995) Anderson The Anderson (or Brodie) Pontifical (Conn 1993) Bobbio The Bobbio Missal (Lowes 1917) CB The Canterbury Benedictional (Woolley 1917) Claudius (I and II) The Claudius Pontificals (Turner 1971) Concordia Regularis Concordia (Symons 1953; Komexl 1993) Corpus 41 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 41 (Grant 1978) Corpus 44 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 44 (Corpus-Canterbury Benedictional) Corpus 163 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 163 (Roman-German Pontifical) Darley Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 422 (The Red Book of Darley) Dunstan The Dunstan (or Sherbome) Pontifical (Conn 1993) Durham The Durham Collectar (Correa 1992) 'Egbert' The 'Egbert' Pontifical (Banting 1989) Gelasian The Gelasian Sacramentary (Wilson 1894) Gothicum Missale Gothicum (Bannister 1917) Gregorian The Gregorian Sacramentary (Deshusses 1971) Lanalet The Lanalet Pontifical (Doble 1937) Leofric Collectar The Leofric Collectar (Dewick and Frere 1914) Leofric Missal The Leofric Missal (Warren 1883) Magdalene Pontifical The Pontifical of Magdalene College (Wilson 1910) New Minster The Missal of the New Minster (Turner 1962) RGP The Romano-German Pontifical (Vogel and Elze 1963) Robert Benedictional The Benedictional of Archbishop Robert (Wilson 1903) Robert Missal The Missal of Robert of Jumieges (Wilson 1896) Samson Cambridge, Corpus Christ College MS 146 (The Samson Pontifical) Stowe The Stowe Missal (Warner 1906) Vitellius A.vii London, BL MS Cotton Vitellius A.vii Winchcombe The Winchcombe Sacramentary (Davril 1995) Winchester Troper The Winchester Troper (Frere 1894) Wulstan The Portiforium of Saint Wulstan (Hughes 1958) VI Dramatic Ritual and Preaching in Late Anglo-Saxon England: Introduction The study of the Anglo-Saxon liturgy is just coming into its own. The closing decade of the millennium has boasted a string of new tools and resources for dealing with liturgical materials as well as more sophisticated and particular explorations of the relevant witnesses. In particular, a recent collaborative delineation of the liturgical books of Anglo-Saxon England will provide the groundwork for a wide range of liturgical research.1 The liturgy of the Anglo-Saxon church certainly warrants the attention. Although not much can be said about the liturgy before the tenth century,2 enough (mostly second-hand) evidence exists to paint the picture of a liturgy that reflects the influence of the Irish, Gallican, Roman, and possibly British churches. Before Augustine arrived in Canterbury in 597, he was given a mandate by Gregory to marry the best of local traditions with the practice of Rome, and this approach remained a dynamic in subsequent reforms. This sort of philosophy surely encouraged a diverse liturgy, but the lack of any substantive liturgical witnesses before the tenth century stunts our appreciation of it. We can develop a much clearer picture of the liturgy in the later Anglo-Saxon church, as the Benedictine Revival spurred the production of a plethora of liturgical books and other documentary witnesses to what has been recently referred to as a "period of national liturgical experiment and innovation."3 Perhaps the most important of these witnesses, the Regularis Concordia drawn up by ^thelwold in the early 970's, echoes Gregory's instruction to Augustine as part of its own mandate, to join the best 1 R. Pfaff, ed. The Liturgical Books of Anglo-Saxon England (1995). 2 For a description of the pre-tenth century Anglo-Saxon liturgical environment, see Catherine Cubitt, Anglo-Saxon Church Councils c. 650-850 (1995), pp. 125-47; Sarah Foot, "'By water in the spirit': the administration of baptism in early Anglo-Saxon England," in Pastoral Care Before the Parish, ed. Blair and Sharpe (1992), pp. 171-92; and the entries in The Liturgical Books of Anglo-Saxon England. 3 Christopher Jones, "The Book of the Liturgy", Speculum 73.3 (1998), p. 685. 1 of the liturgy of the Prankish churches with local English traditions.4 The liturgy reflected in the Concordia and extant in liturgical books of the tenth and eleventh centuries reveals an interest in creative elaboration, often visual elaboration, and in the translation of the significance of liturgical practice for the laity. These dynamics ruled liturgical reform in the tenth and eleventh centuries and were at the heart of ^Ifric's sermons and epistles. The late Anglo-Saxon reformers had a general interest in extending elements of monastic practice to lay observation. Vernacular preaching was an important driving force for this effort. The explanation and expansion of liturgical rituals, as evidenced in the Regularis Concordia, was in line with the general tenth- and eleventh-century interest in making the liturgy accessible to the people. My interest here is in the nature of that ritual at this developmental stage and in the ways in which all members of the Anglo-Saxon Christian community were brought into it. The most famous of these liturgical elaborations has to be the Visitatio Sepulchri, the visit to the sepulchre during which the three Marys hear the pronouncement of the angel that Christ has risen and witness the proof of the Resurrection. The Concordia's oft-quoted instructions for the Visitatio, performed at Matins on Easter morning, present a ritual that, with its apparent consciousness of costuming, dialogue, and role-playing, "marks the beginnings of liturgical drama in England," according to the Blackwell Encyclopaedia of 4 T. Symons, ed. and tr. Regularis Concordia (1953). See Symons' discussion of this mix of Prankish and English elements, p. 3. It has been noted by Joyce Hill ('"The 'Regularis Concordia' and its Latin and Old English Reflexes", Revue Benedictine 101 (1991), pp. 299-315), Lucia Kornexl (Die Regularis concordia und ihre altenglische Interlinearversion (1993), pp. Ivii-lxxxiii), and Christopher Jones (&lfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham (1998), pp. 21-7, hereafter LME) that the Concordia has a rather "obscure textual history" (LME, p. 21). Symons' 1953 edition is based on the version in London, BL, MS Cotton Tiberius A. iii. For simplicity of discussion, long passages from the Concordia are here taken from Symons, Regularis Concordia, with his translations, and references are made to Komexl's edition when pertinent. Similarly, passages from jClfric's Eynsham Letter are taken from Jones' edition, with his translations. Throughout, I have used published translations of Latin passages where available, providing the Latin where important to the argument. Quotes from liturgical forms have been left in the original Latin. Anglo-Saxon England.5 Where did this 'drama' come from, in a tenth-century text from Anglo-Saxon England? Is this really something new, the birth of a new form of worship involving a mimetic presentation of Christian history? What is happening in the tenth- century English church that makes critics want to see in it the birth of liturgical drama and, from there, of Western drama in general? One does not often find the words 'Anglo-Saxon' and 'drama' spoken together, and for good reason. George Anderson, in his The Literature of the Anglo-Saxons, devotes only six pages to "Old English Literature and the Drama." Pointing out the lack of any extant evidence of secular drama, he looks at poetic passages that "imply drama" or "illustrate a dramatic atmosphere."6 His most prominent example is the dialogue between Mary and Joseph in Christ I. Old English literature is also rich in monologues and dialogues that, albeit with a very loose definition of the word, one is tempted to interpret as dramatically-inspired. Julia Bolton Holloway has discussed the dramatic Adoration of the Cross ceremony as reflected in The Dream of the Rood.1 Dramatic voice is often explored in relation to poems like The Seafarer and The Wanderer. Old English sermons and homilies are full of narratives, many of which contain dramatically used direct discourse. Lewis Nicholson discusses dramatic dialogues in the Vercelli homilies, as does Ruth Waterhouse in ^Ifric's saints' lives.8 Still, interpretation of monologues or dialogue from poetry or prose as 'drama' depends upon a performance in which a role is undertaken. While it is compelling to imagine 5 Michael Lapidge, et al, eds. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (1999), p. 389. 6 George Anderson, The Literature of the Anglo-Saxons (1949), p. 207. 7 Julia Bolton Holloway, '"The Dream of the Rood' and Liturgical Drama", in Drama in the Middle Ages, eds. Davidson and Stroupe (1990), pp. 24-42. 8 Francis Clough, "Introduction", in The Vercelli Book Homilies, ed. Nicholson (1991), pp. 1-15; Ruth Waterhouse, "^Ifric's Use of Discourse in Some Saints' Lives", ASE 5 (1976), pp. 83-103. a particularly histrionic preacher presenting such passages mimetically, the fact that they are almost universally subjugated to very down-to-earth instruction and didactic exhortation does not seem to suggest this; at least, it prevents us from calling them 'drama,' without corollary evidence indicating how they might have been presented. As for poetic monologues, while I cannot agree with Anderson that "drama . . . demands the interplay of two or more characters,"9 speculations about the relationship between Old English poetry and 'drama' are simply that. For Anderson, because of its compelling use of dialogue between Mary and Joseph in Christ I and in the Last Judgement scene in Christ III, "the one poem in Old English literature which [in certain parts] comes nearest in form to a play is ... Christ."10 While, in his opinion, these passages are "more advanced than liturgical drama" of the same period, their singularity forces him to conclude that, "to judge from the literature which [the Anglo-Saxon] has left behind him ... it is difficult to see him as the possessor of any strong dramatic sense or the mimetic artist of vivacity and imagination."11 Still, it is to Anglo-Saxon England that critics look for what is probably the most celebrated example of pre-twelfth-century dramatic ritual, the Visitatio Sepulchri. There are almost as many theories as to the origin of its central Quern quaeritis dialogue as there are critics but, regardless of origin, its use in the Regularis Concordia seems to indicate some kind of dramatic sensibility, at least among English monks. Indeed, most of the dramatic rituals of the Easter season to which critics point as the origins of liturgical drama are featured in the Concordia. The apparent strength of dramatic ritual in Anglo-Saxon England, compared to the lack of secular drama, prompts Anderson to attribute the dramatic structure of Christ's Mary and Joseph dialogue to the liturgy (specifically the antiphons for Advent). 9 Anderson, The Literature of the Anglo-Saxons, p. 207. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. p. 209.