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St. Alban and St. Albans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Wilhelm Levison
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Extract

The name of St. Alban, the protomartyr Angliae, occurs for the first time in the Life of Bishop Germanus of Auxerre which Constantius of Lyons wrote about 480. Germanus and his colleague Lupus of Troyes had been sent to Britain in 429 to fight against the Pelagian heretics; having succeeded, they visited the tomb of St. Alban to offer their thanks for the victory (c. 16, in Mon. Germ, hist., Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum VII, 262) : Conpressa itaque perversitate damnabili eiusque auctoribus confutatis animisque omnium fidei puritate conpositis, sacerdotes beatum Albanum martyrem, acturi Deo per ipsum gratias, petierunt. The genuine text of the Life does not tell anything more of the martyr, who evidently could be presumed to be known to the reader. The uneventful return of the bishops to Gaul too is attributed to the intercession of the saint (c. 18, p. 265) : Tranquillam navigationem merita propria et intercessio Albani martyris paraverunt, quietosque antestites suorum desideriis felix carina restituit.

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Research Article
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Antiquity , Volume 15 , Issue 60 , December 1941, pp. 337 - 359
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Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1941

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References

1 See my paper ‘Bischof Germanus von Auxerre und die Quellen zu seiner Geschichte’ (in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für altere deutsche Geschichtskunde, 1903, XXIX, 1, 147–50, 162).

2 ‘Die Legende des h. Albanus, des Protomartyr Angliae, in Texten vor Beda ‘ (Abhandlungen der Kgl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gôttingen, Philol.-hist. Klasse, Neue Folge, 1904, VIII, 1). Cp. the reviews by J. B. Bury, English Historical Review, 1905, XX, 345–47, and H. Delehaye, Analecta Bollandiana, 1905, XXIV, 397–99 ; Hugh Williams, Christianity in early Britain (Oxford 1912), 106–9 ‘> H. Delehaye, Les Passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires (Brussels 1921), 403–7.

3 So H. Delehaye, ‘ In Britannia dans le Martyrologe Hiéronymien ‘ {Proceedings British Academy, 1931, XVII, 301). The same difference of one day (and the changing of Albanus and Albums) is found also in the additions of St. Alban’s name in several texts of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (Acta sanctorum Novembris, II, 2, pp. 328, 330) ; many calendars give both days accordingly.

4 A. W. Wade-Evans, ‘The Site of St. Alban’s Martyrdom’, Archaeologia Cam-brensis, 1905, 6th series V, 256–59 ; Welsh Christian Origins (Oxford 1934), 18 f. ; Nennius’s History of the Britons (London 1938), 131 (n. 2), 132 (n. 1).

5 The Text of the Book of Lian Dâv ed. J. Gw. Evans and J. Rhys (Oxford 1893), 225 f. (translation of the Welsh part p. 377 ; cp. Bradney, loc. cit. 294, 302). A few churches in Brittany were dedicated to St. Aaron, rather the martyr of Caerleon than an obscure hermit of St. Malo, in the opinion of J. Loth, Les noms des saints bretons (Paris 1910), 7 (cp. 147) and of F. Duine, ‘ Mémento des sources hagiographiques de l’histoire de Bretagne 1, (Mémoires de la Société archéologique d’Ille-et-Vilaine, 1918, XLVI, 380 f., off-print 138 f.)

6 Monasticon Anglicanum, 1830, VI, 2, 1022. The charter is known from an inspeximus and confirmation of Edward 1 of 1290 ; see Calendar Charter Rolls, 11, 358, no. 1. The year 1113 is mentioned in the confirmation of Henry 1 preserved by another inspeximus of 1290, ib. 361, no. 1. The first roll is repeated in an inspeximus of Edward 11 of 1320, ib. HI, 434 f.

7 Journal British Archaeological Association, N.s. XXXV, 15 ; cp. Bradney IV, II, 309 ff.

8 E. Farai, La Légende arthurienne (Paris 1929), III, 54.

9 Charter Rolls, il, 362, no. 2 ; L. Delisle and E. Berger, ‘Recueil des actes de Henri 11 roi d’Angleterre et duc de Normandie’ (in Chartes et diplômes relatifs à l’histoire de France) (1916), 1, 53, no. 48*. The title given to Henry 11 corresponds to the use of 1151–53 only ; therefore Delisle, Introduction, 130 and 511 (no. 46*) and Berger, loc. cit. i, 53 attributed the charter to 1153 (Delisle 511 to 1153–54). Berger recognized that one of the witnesses, Count Robert of Gloucester, died in 1147, and conjectured Roberto might be a blunder of the transcriber of the charter for Willelmo, Robert’s son and successor (pp. 53, 55). But another witness, the famous Count Miles of Hereford, died before, on 24 December 1143, to be succeeded by his son Roger ; the charter has to be dated from this very year. When Henry was brought to England the first time, the use could not yet have been fixed enough to call him only ‘ducis Normannorum et comitis Andegavorum filius’; the mention also of the Welshmen and of Wales, besides French- and Englishmen, Normandy and England, in the ‘ inscription ‘ of the charter is unusual (Delisle, Introd. 209, n. 1 ; but see 1, 182, no. 78). Another possibility is that Henry’s title was deformed by the transcriber of the charter. Delisle, Introd. 130 rightly had no doubt as to ‘ l’authenticité et la sincérité ‘ of the document, which seems to be the first known charter issued in the name of Henry 11.

10 Rose Graham, ‘Four Alien Priories in Monmouthshire’, British Arch. Assoc, N.s. XXXV, 104 f., 108 f., 112 f., 115 ff., 118 f. ; cp. Bradney, loc. cit. IV, 2, 272 ff.

11 Even the day of the two martyrs was forgotten. In later times their names were ascribed to the first of July : one of them had the name of the month, the other that of the high-priest Aaron, whose death was believed to have occurred on this day (cp. Acta sanctorum Julii 1, 9 ff., 17, Novembris 11, 2, p. 345 ; Baring-Gould and Fisher, The Lives of the British Saints, 1, 103). In Brittany Aaron’s festival day was 22 June, the day of St. Alban ; see Duine, loc. cit.

12 I refer as to lives of saints to the numbers of the excellent B(ibliotheca) H(agio-graphica) L(atina) of the Bollandists, Brussels, 1898–1901, with Supplementi editto altera, 1911, and do not mention editions themselves.

13 The famous inscription of Constantine’s triumphal arch (‘instinctu divinitatis’) can be left aside.

14 Constantius mentions that Germanus always had with him a capsula with relics of saints, Vita Germani, e. 4, 15, 43 (pp. 253, 262, 281).

15 Heiric, Vita Germani iv, 28 ff. (ed. Traube, Mon. Germ, hist., Poetae Lat. III, 476) and Miracula Germani 1, 17 (Acta sanctorum julii VII, 258) ; Gesta pontificum Autissiodorensium c. 7 (ed. L. M. Duru, Bibliothèque historique de l’Yonne i (Auxerre-Paris 1850), 318.

16 Victoria Hist. Hertfordshire (1914), IV, 285 f. ; R. E. M. and T. V. Wheeler, Verulamium, 1936 (Reports of the Research Committee of the Soc. of Antiq., no. XI), 32 f.

17 I suggest c. 2 (Meyer p. 46, 16) ‘ecclesiam christianam [nu]per fundatam’ for ‘eccl. christiano per fundata’ ; c. 15 (p. 56, 9) ‘horae spatio orationem posuit’ for ‘oraspatii oratione posuit’, see e.g. Rufinus, Hist. Eccl., IV, 15, 14 (ed. Mommsen p. 341) on Polycarp : ‘unius horae ab eis spatio orationis gratia inpetrato’, or Passio Bomfatii Tarsensis c. 9 (BHL. 1413) : ‘Transacto autem quasi unius horae spatio’, etc.

18 I cannot agree with J. B. Bury, loc. cit. 346, who considered the possibility that Gildas had no written source but simply gave the legend, as it was orally current at Verulamium. But would he have spoken of the Thames in this case ? Probably he had read the text, but it was not before him when he was writing.

19 So also Vict. Hist. Hertfordshire, IV, 283, n. 13.

20 L. F. Rushbrook Williams, History of the Abbey of St. Albans (1917), p. 3.

20A Roger of Wendover, Chronica (586, 793) ed. Coxe, 1, 91 and 251–59 ; Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora ed. Luard, 1, 252, 356–61 ; Paris’ Vita Offae secundi ed. Wats, Matthaei Paris Historia Major (London 1684), 982 if. (on its relation to the Chronicles cp. L. Theopold, Kritische Untersuchungen iiber die Quellen zur angelsáchsischen Geschichte des 8. Jahrhunderts, Diss. of Göttingen I 872, I 12 ff .); Chronica Johannis Wallingford ed. Gale, Historiae Britannicae, etc. Scriptures XV, 1691, 530 ; the double Inventio S. Albani (BHL. 215-6 ; Hardy, Descriptiwe Catalogue I, I, p. 16, no. 28-29) in Dublin MS. Trinity College E. I. 40 (cp. P. Grosjean, Anal. Bolland., 1928, XLVI, 96 f.), fol. 50 V-62 V, 66 V-68 V, of which, besides fragments published by Ussher (Usserius), larger parts are accessible by the reproductions of W. R. L. Lowe and E. F. Jacob (with a preface by M. R. James), Illurtrations to the Life of St. Alban (Oxford, 1924), with the drawings referred to Matthew Paris (quoted Illustr.) ; some forged charters. On the problems of the historiography of St. Albans I will only mention Claude Jenkins, The Monastic Chronicler and the Early School of St. Albans (1922); F. M. Powicke, ‘Notes on the Compilation of the Chronica Majora df Matthew Paris’ (Modern Philology, 1941, XXXVIII, 305-17), and-for the later Middle Ages—V. H. Galbraith, St. Albans Chronicle 1406–20 (Oxford 1937), pp. XXVII ff.

21 Petrie, Monumenta histórica Britannica 1, 1848, 338, n. 24 ; cp. Ch. Plummer, Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel 1, p. 56, n. 1 ; 11, p. 62 and 11.

22 F. Liebermann, Ungedruckte Anglo-Nortnannische Geschichtsquellen (Strassburg 1879), 63.

23 Charter referring to abbot Leofstan and Tova, widow of Wihtric, ed. Kemble, Codex diplom. aevi Saxon., IV, 284, no. 950 ; Luard, loc. cit. VI, 29, no. 12.

24 F. Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen II, 2, p. 610, § 15 (cp. 11, 1, p. 173).

25 Stephen is compared to St. Alban in Dublin MS. fol. 61 f., Illustr., pl. 50 f.

26 Ad. Goldschmidt, Der Albanipsalter in Hildesheim (Berlin, 1895), 28;Fr. Wormald,’ English Benedictine Kalendars after A.D. 1100, 1, 41 (Henry Bradshaw Society, LXXVII, 1939) ; J. Dalton, Ordinale Exon., 11, 421 (ib. XXXVIII, 1909) ; Annales Henrici IV , 1406 (in Johannis de Trokelowe Annales, ed. Riley, 420).

27 R. Lennard, From Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England (in Wirtschaft und Kultur. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Alfons Dopsch (Baden near Vienna 1938), 73 f.

28 O. G. S. Crawford, Western Seaways (in Custom is King: essays presented to R. R. Marett, London 1936, 182, n. 2).

29 About the middle of the 13th century the old English text had been changed in the tales of the monks into a history of St. Alban written in the idioma antiquorum Britonum or antiquo Anglico vel Britannico idiomate, which was found in the ruins of Verulamium in the time of abbot Eadmar in the 10th century. It was deciphered by a learned priest Unwona, and turned at once to dust, when its contents had been made known ; see Gesta abb. 1, 26 f. cp. R. M. Wilson, ‘ Some lost Saints’ Lives in Old and Middle English ‘ (Modern Language Review (1941), XXXVI, 161 if).

30 in loco qui vulgi consuetudine Holmhorst vocabatur (§ 17), which may be added to the place-names of Hertfordshire.

31 cp. Delehaye, ‘In Britannia’ dans le Martyrologe Hiéronymien (loc. cit. 300 f.)

32 The Arts in Early England, 1915, III, 120 f. ; cp. Baring-Gould and Fisher, loc. cit. 1, 153. On Redbourn see M. Reddan, Vict. Hist. Hertfordshire, iv, 416 ff. ; cp. 11, 364 ff.

* It seems most probable that the human remains found at Redbourn consisted of secondary burials in a pre-existing (Roman or earlier) barrow, as at Dunstable ; and I have already marked the site as such on the Ordnance Survey ‘Dark Ages’ map. Primary Saxon barrows were normally either very small—in which case they occurred not singly or in pairs but in large groups set close together, as in many Kentish cemeteries— or else they covered primary cremations. The fact that Redbourn stands right on Watling Street makes it probable that the barrow was of the Roman period.—O .G.S.C.

33 V. H. Galbraith, The Abbey of St. Albans from 1300 to the Dissolution of the Monasteries (Oxford 1911), p. 3.

34 E. R. Curtius, ‘ Dichtung und Rhetorik im Mittelalter ‘(Deutsche Vierteljahrs-schrift für Literaturviissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 1938, XVI, 435 ff).

35 ed. R. Atkinson, Vie de seint Auban, 1876 ; partly Illustr. pl. 1–30. The Latin form Heraclius is given by John of Tynemouth, Nova Legenda Anglie, ed. C. Horstman (Oxford 1901), 1, 33.

36 Inventio Albani in Dublin MS. fol. 52–52 v, Illustr. pl. 32, 33 ; cp. Usserius, Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, Dublin, 1639, 981 (London, 1687, 83 ; Works of James Ussher, ed. Elrington, v, 190). The same 982 (83; 191) prints a text calling Alban magistrum mìlìtum totitis Britanniae, which is said to be taken from libro, quem Dominus Iohannes Mansel specialis Domini Regis clericus et consiliarius attulit de Hispânia ; a part of the text relies on Geoffrey of Monmouth. The reference seems to depend on Dublin MS. fol. 22, cp. Atkinson p. VII, XII. On John Mansel, the famous counsellor of Henry in, who died in 1265, see Kingsford, Diet, of Nat. Biogr., XXXVI, 84 ff. He was sent to Castile in 1253 and 1254, and came to St. Albans with the queen in October 1259. The French poem v. 21 (Atkinson, p. 3) calls Alban de la cité un haut marèschal.

37 See Usserius 986 (88 ; 202) from Dublin MS. fol. 70 V, cp. ib. 980 f. (77 ; 178) ; Matth. Par., Chron. Maj., V, 608 f. ‘It seems that there has never been an eastern crypt’ at St. Albans (Vict. Hist. Hertf., 11, 484).

38 Inventio Albani in Dublin MS. fol. 55, Usserius 981 (83 ; 190), Illustr., pl. 38 ; Hildebert’s elegy may have been known to the author from William of Malmesbury’s Gesta regum IV, 351 (ed. Stubbs II, 403) ; but it is also found elsewhere.