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Notes on the Biography of St. Edmund of Abingdon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
Extract
A recent book on St. Edmund makes remarkable advances in the knowledge of this outstanding saint and scholar. The author, C. H. Lawrence, has sifted the mass of evidence produced by Edmund's canonization and reduced it to an understandable corpus, identifying the authorship of some pieces and tracing their relationships. He has edited much of this evidence so that it is now accessible for use. Edmund's biography stands out somewhat clearer. It was known, of course, that Edmund came of a borough family, had a long period of study and teaching in arts and theology before he came into prominence as Treasurer of Salisbury and Archbishop of Canterbury. The author shows that Edmund's family was really rich in children and property, that Edmund deserves more credit for more effective political leadership than he has received and that, at the end of his life, he was merely making a routine trip to Rome rather than retiring into exile at Pontigny. Further clarification of Edmund's life is possible within the limits of the evidence without conjecturing unreasonably.
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- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1961
References
1 St. Edmund of Abingdon. A Study in Hagiography and History, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1960Google Scholar.
2 Lawrence, pp. 290–293.
3 Lawrence, pp. 293–295.
4 Lawrence, pp. 222–223.
5 “Dum lecturiens apud Mertonam.” Matthew Paris, in Lawrence, p. 234. See also Lawrence, pp. 119—120.
6 Rashdall, H., The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, revised by A. B. Emden and F. M. Powicke (Oxford, 1936), III, 34–35Google Scholar: the document is given in H. E. Salter, Medieval Archives of the University of Oxford, I, 2–4.
7 “Erat enim in lectionibus et meditacionibus assiduus, in oratione devotissimus, semper in ieiuniis et vigiliis continuus, horam nullam matutinarum dormiendo preteriens sed ad omnes, nobiscum quasi deditus esset, accedens.” Lawrence, p. 297.
8 Lawrence, pp. 293–302.
9 Lawrence, p. 297.
10 “Nam idem venerabilis pater antequam theologie publicus rector existeret, per annum et amplius in domo nostro iugiter morabitur.” Lawrence, pp. 297, 207, 230–231.
11 As Eustace indicated: “In quo tam mirabiliter in brevi profecit quod cito post paucos annos, suadentibus multis cum instancia, cathedram magistralem quasi invitus, quamquam doctus amore iustiticie et veritatis, ascendit.” Lawrence, p. 197. But why justice if only a professor's chair?
12 No use of it as a professorial chair is indicated in DuCange, Glossarium.
13 Rashdall, III, 58. That is, a kind of faculty head.
14 “Videlicet frater Robertus Bacun, rector in theologia Oxonie, et frater Ricardus de Drinstapele, prior Fratrum Predicatorum ibidem.” Lawrence, p. 292. For Robert's activities see my Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England, pp. 130–131. He is never given a title in the documents.
15 Called such in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Manuscripts of … the Duke of Rutland, IV, 82: “theologiam Oxon' legentes” (with another master). Eynsham Cartulary, ed. Salter, H. E. (Oxford, 1908, Oxford Hist. Soc), II, 45–47Google Scholar.
16 See my “Notes on the Career of Robert Grosseteste,” Harvard Theological Review, XLVIII (1955), 202Google Scholar.
17 Rashdall, III, 39.
18 Rashdall, III, 37.
19 Lawrence, pp. 234, 291. See note 11 above. The chancellor was usually a professor of theology.
20 My Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England (London, 1936), p. 110Google ScholarPubMed.
21 The tradition is accepted by Callus, D. A., Robert Grosseteste, Scholar and Bishop (Oxford, 1955), pp. xv, 7–10Google Scholar. Russell, “Notes,” p. 202. If my interpretation of the evidence is correct Grosseteste was in France in this period, closely associated with King Philip Augustus.
22 Russell, , “The Early Schools of Oxford and Cambridge,” The Historian, v (1943), 70–71Google Scholar.
23 On royal patronage of St. Peters see Grosseteste, Rotuli Roberti, episcopi Lincolniensis ((Horncastle, 1914, Lincoln Record Society), 445, 449, 450. See also note 51.Google Scholar
24 Lawrence, pp. 112–116.
25 For Neckam see Russell, , Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England (London, 1936), pp. 14–16Google Scholar. He was also buried near King John in Worcester Cathedral.
26 Lawrence, p. 234.
27 Rashdall, I, 472.
28 “Et etate iuvenis quosque senes fidem, doctrina, scientia et consilio excedebat.” Lawrence, p. 231.
29 Isidore, XI, ii, 1–8. See also my Late Ancient and Medieval Population, p. 33.
30 See note 11.
31 As Lawrence suggests, p. 198.
32 Lawrence, p. 291 (Oxford letter).
33 The expression “a tempore quo rexerat in artibus” may be assumed to mean any time in the whole period rather than when he incepted or commenced his teaching. Lawrence, p. 292.
34 Lawrence, pp. 114–115, 205, 228. Lawrence's skepticism about the numbers seems unnecessary. After all, Edmund's brother (pp. 203–205) passed on this statement.
35 For such exaggeration see my Late Ancient and Medieval Population, p. 46.
36 Lawrence, p. 294.
37 My British Medieval Population, p. no.
88 Lawrence, pp. 112–116.
39 Lawrence, p. 113. Daniel of Morley went to Northampton and possibly Cambridge rather than Oxford. See my “Notes,” p. 201; Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England, p. 25.
40 Assuming again a necessary regency of a year or so.
41 Emden, A. B., An Oxford Hall in Medieval Times (Oxford, 1927), p. 87Google Scholar, quoting from a manuscript at St. Johns, Cambridge. He was twelve while at Oxford. Lawrence, pp. 83, 224.
42 Rashdall, 1,462.
43 Eynsham Cartulary, II, 269, probably derived from Matthew Paris' statement, “Patre post paucos annos defuncto.” Lawrence, p. 223.
44 Lawrence, p. 106. The evidence is not clear, but the responsibilities placed upon him suggest it.
45 Lawrence, p. 317.
46 However, Roger's name, if that of a brother of the grantor, should have been followed by the words, “ejus fratre.” Reginald was more than usually popular as a man's name in Abingdon because an abbot had borne that name.
47 Lawrence, pp. 106–107. The story was that he had his wife's consent which, given the character of Mabel, is probably an understatement.
48 This is an argument from silence, but a man of Reginald's wealth was apt to have left a record of donation.
49 (Abbas Johannes de Blostmeville) in capella que dedicata est in honorem sancti Crucis et beatorum Edmundi et Guthlaci confessorum, quam ipse abbas propriis sumptibus fabricavit; et quia Mabilia mater sancti Edmundi ibidem iacet tumulata, capella matris sancti Edmundi vulgariter nuncupatur.” English Historical Review, XXVI (1911), 731Google Scholar.
50 Lawrence, pp. 109–110.
51 Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon (London, 1858, Rolls Series), II, 237–244Google Scholar, 296–334: Reginald Kiwel on p. 238.
52 “Reginaldus habebat i. panem in aula, pro guteriis parandis. Sep. ejus, uno anno v. acras, et alio iiii. acras et dimidiam, de decima in Appelford, et i. porcum in Natali.” Ibid., II, 241.
53 Just after telling how Edmund began to wear the iron lorica worn by his mother, after her death, Robert Banon says that at certain times of year he wore a lead garment. Was this in remembrance of his father? “Cum autem Oxoniam devenisset, mortua matre sua, ipsa uti lorica, quam ad hoc reliquerat ei mater sua, (incepit), que in vita sua eadem utebatur. Uti etiam solitus fuit in Adventu Domini et in Quadragesima quodam indumento plumbeo.” Lawrence, p. 249.
54 Lawrence, pp. 195, 203, 223, 290–291.
55 Lawrence, pp. 19s, 223, 291.
56 Lawrence, pp. 69, 206–207, 229, 291.
57 Lawrence, p. 106.
58 Presumably Edmund, not yet having his M.A. was under 21 when he arranged for one charter (Lawrence, pp. 316–317) and probably William and Roger were younger (Lawrence, p. 317). It raises the question of the legal age for children in the English boroughs of the time.
59 A. B. Emden, An Oxford Hall, pp. 88–93; Lawrence, pp. 206, 229, 291.
60 Lawrence, pp. 77, 253.
61 Register of St. Osmund (Rolls Series), I, 8–13. This does not indicate, as Lawrence, p. 123 suggests, that the treasurer was in charge of the fabric.
62 My “Many Sided Career of Master Elias of Dereham,” Speculum, V (1930), 381Google Scholar.
63 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Various Collections, I, 377–378.
64 Lawrence, pp. 166–167: Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, II, 174.
65 Register of St. Osmund's II, 65; Lawrence, p. 123.
66 Lawrence, p. 123.
67 “Exitur igitur Abendonie oriundus parentibus Christianissimis moribus honestis, operibus bonis et elemosinis plenis.” Lawrence, p. 295. Lawrence makes the suggestion that the sources avoided referring to Reginald's profession because he was in business, an employment hardly worthy of the father of a great saint. Lawrence, p. no.
68 J. T. Welter, Thesaurus Exemplorum, V, 12.
69 Lawrence, pp. 144–146; my Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England, pp. 128–129.
70 Lawrence, pp. 196, 206.
71 Perhaps because geometry was sometimes regarded as akin to magic. Lawrence, pp. 251–252.
72 Lawrence, p. 129.