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Unity and Diversity in the Early Anglo-Saxon Liturgy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Catherine Cubitt
Catherine Cubitt*
Affiliation:
University of York
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Extract

The early Anglo-Saxon Church felt that it possessed a special relationship with the papacy and Rome, going back (according to Bede) to the Gregorian mission of 597. Despite setbacks to this mission, unity with the Church of Rome triumphed over Irish traditions to become the keystone in the identity of the English Church. Imitation of Roman liturgical customs was a significant element in this union. In the early days of the Gregorian mission, liturgical uniformity had been unimportant, indeed Gregory specifically instructed Augustine to create a liturgy of mixed ancestry, taking the best from what he had experienced. But by the late seventh century, indifference had been overtaken by enthusiasm for the Roman chant: Bede tells us of the efforts of, for example, Benedict Biscop and Bishop Wilfrid to introduce Roman liturgical customs into their foundations. In 747, the Southumbrian Council of Clofesho decreed that the feasts of the Christian calendar and the monastic office should be performed in accordance with Roman texts and practices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 32: Unity and Diversity in the Church , 1996 , pp. 45 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1996

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References

1 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [hereafter HE], ed. and trans. B. Colgrave and Mynors, R. A. B., Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford, 1969), i, 27 Google Scholar. This passage is discussed by P. Meyvaert, ‘Diversity within unity, a Gregorian theme’, in his Benedict, Gregory, Bede and others (London, 1977), 6, pp. 141–62. See also the contribution by Rob Meens to the present volume (pp. 31-43).

2 HE, iv, 8 and iv, 2.

3 Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs [hereafter HS], 3 vols (Oxford, 1869-79), 3, pp. 367-8, cc. 13, 15, 18. These liturgical provisions are discussed in my book, Anglo-Saxon Church Councils, C.650-C.850 (Leicester, 1995)ch. 5.

4 Æthelwulf, , De abbatibus, ed. Campbell, A. (Oxford, 1967), c. 20 Google Scholar.

5 Anonymous, Vita Ceolfrithi, c. 14, in Venerabilis Baedae opera historica, ed. C. Plummer, 2 vols (Oxford, 1896), 1, p. 393. Discussed by D. Whitelock, ‘Bede and his teachers and friends’, and P. Wormald, ‘Bede and Benedict Biscop’, in G. Bonner, ed., Famulus Christi. Essays in Commemoration of the Thirteenth Centenary of the Birth of the Venerable Bede (London, 1976), pp. 20-2, 143-4.

6 Anonymous, Vita Ceolfrithi, cc. 23-7; Historia abbatum in Venerabilis Baedae opera historica, 1, pp. 364-87.

7 The account is edited and translated in HE, pp. 582-3. See also Ward, B., Bede and the Psalter, Jarrow Lecture 1991 (Jarrow, 1991), pp. 1–3 Google Scholar, on this moment and on the emotional power ofliturgical use of the psalter, and, further, M. Berry, ‘What the monks sang: music in Winchester in the late tenth century’, in B. Yorke, ed., Bishop Æthelwold: his Career and Influence (Woodbridge, 1988), pp. 149-54, emphasizing the importance of the liturgy in a tenth-century monastic context.

8 HE, ii. 20.

9 HE, iv, 2

10 HE. iv, 18.

11 See, for example, Bede’s comments on Putta and Maban, HE, iv, 2 and v, 20.

12 From Aldhelm, The Prose Works, trans. M. Lapidge and Herren, M. (Ipswich, 1979), p. 108 Google Scholar; Manser, D. A., ‘Le témoinage d’Aldhelm de Sherborne sur une particularité du canon Grégorien de la messe romaine’, RB, 28 (1911), pp. 90–5 Google Scholar; Bishop, E., Liturgica histórica (Oxford, 1918), pp. 104–5 Google Scholar.

13 Ecgberht, Dialogus ecclesiasticae institutions, Interrogate 16, HS, 3, pp. 410-13.

14 K. Camber, ‘Das Regensburg Fragment eines Bonifatius-Sakramentars. Ein neuer Zeuge des vorgregorianischen Messkanon’, RB, 85 (1975), pp. p266-302.

15 Willis, G. G., Essays in Early Roman Liturgy, Alcuin Club Collections, 46 (London, 1964), pp. 49–97 Google Scholar; Bullough, ‘Roman books and the Carolingian renovatio’, in his Carolingian Renewal: Sources and Heritage (Manchester, 1991), pp. 5-6 (reprinted from SCH, 14 [1977]). Bullough suggests that this passage in the Dialogues may be later than Ecgberht’s pontificate.

16 This argument is developed in Cubitt, Anglo-Saxon Church Councils, ch. 5.

17 See, for example, H. Ashworth, ‘Did St Augustine bring the “Gregorianum” to England?’, Ephemerides liturgicae, 72 (1958), pp. 39-43; Hohler, C., ‘Some service books of the later Saxon church’, in Tenth-Century Studies. Essays in Commemoration of the Millennium of the Council of Winchester and Regularis Concordia, ed. Parsons, D. (Chichester, 1975), pp. 60–4 Google Scholar; Willis, G. G., Further Essays in Early Roman Liturgy, Alcuin Club Collections, 50 (London, 1968), pp. 192–8, 201 Google Scholar. On early Anglo-Saxon liturgy see Bullough, ‘Roman books’, pp. 1-7; Mayr-Harting, H., The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1972), pp. 168–90 Google Scholar, and Gneuss, H., ‘Liturgical books in Anglo-Saxon England and their Old English terminology’, in Lapidge, M. and Gneuss, H., eds., Learning and Literature: Studies presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 91–141 Google Scholar.

18 Bede, In Ezram et Neemiam and De tabernaculo in Bedae venerabilis opera II: opera exegetica, ed. D. Hurst (Turnhout, 1969), pp. 310-11, 89, compare with Le s acramentaire grégorien, ses principales formes d’après les plus anciens manuscrits, I: Le sacramentaire, le supplément d’Aniane, ed. J. Deshusses (Fribourg, 1971), p. 46, xxxiiii.

19 Frank, H., ‘Die Briefe das heiligen Bonifatius und das von ihm benuzte Sakramentar’, in Sankt Bonijatius. Gedenkgabe zum zwälfhundertsten Todestag (Fulda, 1954), pp. 58–88 Google Scholar.

20 Würzburg Universitatsbibliothek, M. p. th. f. 62, see Klauser, T., Des römische Capitulare Evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, I Typen, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen 28, 2nd edn, (Munster, 1972), p. xxxiii, no. 21 Google Scholar; Chapman, J., Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels (Oxford, 1908), pp. 191–9 Google Scholar.

21 Though note that E. O’Carragain, ‘Liturgical innovations associated with Pope Sergius and the iconography of the Ruthwell and Bewcastle crosses’, in R. T. Farrell, ed., Bede and Anglo-Saxon England. Papers in Honour of the 1300th Anniversary of the Birth of Bedegiven at Cornell University in 1973 and 1974, British Archaeological Reports, 46 (Oxford, 1978), pp. 131-47, argues that liturgical innovations introduced by Pope Sergius were very quickly absorbed by the Anglo-Saxons.

22 G. Morin, ‘Le recueil primitif des homélies de Bede sur l’Evangile’, RB, 9 (1892), pp. 316-26.

23 G. Morin, ‘Le liturgie de Naples au temps de saint Grégoire’, RB, 8(1891), pp. 481-93 and 529-37; idem, ‘Les notes liturgiques de l’évangelaire de Burchard’, RB, 10 (1893), pp. 113-26; Chapman, Notes on the Early History; T. J. Brown in T. D. Kendrick et al., Evangelorum Quattuor Codex Lindisfarnensis, 2 vols (Oltun and Lausanne, 1960), 2, pp. 34-7, 47-50.

24 13N, MS latin 10837, facsimile by Wilson, H., The Calendar of St Willibrord from Ms Paris Lai. 10837, Henry Bradshaw Society, 55 (London, 1918)Google Scholar.

25 Berlin, Offentl. Wissenschaftl. Bibliothek, MS Latin fol. 8772, and Regensburg, Walderdorff Samml. and Regensburg, Bischoflichen Zentralbibl. Clm. 1. P. Siffrin, ‘Zwei Blatter eines Sakramentars in irischer Schrift des 8. Jahrh. aus Regensburg’, Jahrbuch für Lititrgiewissenchaft, 10 (1930), pp. 1-39. See also the discussion of D. A. Bullough, ‘Alcuin and the kingdom of heaven: liturgy, theology and the Carolingian age’, in his Carolinian Renewal, p. 168 (reprinted from Blumenthal, U. R., ed, Carolingian Essays: Andrew W. Mellon Lectures in Early Christian Studies, [Washington DC, 1983]Google Scholar).

26 Vita sancti Wilfridi, c. 17, ed. Colgrave, B., in The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephamis (Cambridge, 1927)Google Scholar; noted by Mayr-Harting, Coming of Christianity, pp. 180-1. For the Gallican service, see Liber sacramentorum Romanae aecdesiae ordinis anni circuli. (Cod. Vat. Reg. lat. 316/Paris Bibl. Nat. 7193, 41/56), ed. L. C. Mohlberg (Rome, 1960), pp. Ixxxxviii, 107-10; Missale Francorum (Cod. Vat. Reg. lat. 257), ed. L. C. Mohlberg (Rome, 1957), no. 12, pp. 17-19. See also the discussion of A. Chavasse, Le Sacramentaire Gélasien (Vaticanus Reginensis 316). Sacramentaire presbytéraí en usage dans les titres romains au viie siècle (Tournai, 1957), pp. 36-49.

27 Insular fragments of Gallican blessings are; the Rualand fragment (now lost: see Missale Gallicanum Vetus: (Cod. Vat. Palat. lat. 493), ed. L. C. Mohlberg [Rome, 1958], pp. 93-4); Cambridge, Trinity Hall College Library, MS 24, fols 78-83; BN MS latin 9488, fols 3-4. See H. M. Bannister, ‘Liturgical fragments’, JThS, 9 (1908), pp. 398-403, and further discussion in Cubitt, Anglo-Saxon Church Councils, ch. 5.

28 See Kuypers, A. B., The Prayer Book of Aedeluald the Bishop, Commonly Called the Book of Cerne (Cambridge, 1902)Google Scholar; K. Hughes, ‘Some aspects of Irish influence on early English private prayer’, Studia Celtica, 5 (1970), pp. 48-61; see also P. Sims-Williams, ‘Thought, word and deed; an Irish triad’, Eriu, 29 (1978), pp. 99-105.

29 Campbell, J., ‘The first century of Christianity in England’, in his Essays in Anglo-Saxon History (London, 1986), pp. 49–67 Google Scholar; I. N. Wood, ‘Ripon, Francia and the Franks Casket in the early Middle Ages’, NH, 26 (1990), pp. 1-19; ‘The Franks and Sutton Hoo’, in I. N. Wood and N. Lund, eds, People and Places in Northern Europe 500-1600: Essays in Honour of Peter Hayes Sawyer (Woodbridge, 1991), pp. 1-14, idem, ‘Frankish hegemony in England’, in The Age of Sutton Hoo, ed. M. Carver (Woodbridge, 1992), pp. 235-41.

30 HE, iii, 8.

31 HE, iii, 8. On Columbanian foundations see A. Dierkens, ‘Prolégomènes à une histoire des relations culturelles entre les îles britanniques et le continent pendant le Haut Moyen Age. La diffusion du monachisme dit columbanien ou iro-franc dans quelques monastères de la région parisienne au VIIe siècle et la politique religeuse de la reine Bathilde’, in H. Atsma, ed., La Neustrie. Les pays du nord de la Loire de 650 à 850. Colloque historique international, Beihefte der Francia, 16, 2 vols (Sigmaringen, 1989), 2, pp. 371-94; and I. N. Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751 (Harlow, 1994), pp. 184-9.

32 R. McKitterick, ‘Nuns’ scriptoria in England and Francia in the eighth century’, Francia, 19, i (1992), pp. 1-35; idem, ‘The diffusion of insular culture in Neustria between 650 and 850: the implications of the manuscript evidence’, in Atsma, La Neustrie, 2, pp. 395-434.

33 Vatican Library, MS Reg. Lat. 316 and BN, MS latin 7193, fols 41-56.

34 Vatican Library, MSS Reg. 257 and Pal. 493. These are usefully discussed by Y. Hen, ‘Popular culture in Merovingian Gaul A. D. 481-751’ (Cambridge, Ph.D. thesis, 1994), pp. 59-61.

35 Chavasse, Le Sacramentaire Gélasien, pp. 5-27; Missale Francorum, ed. Mohlberg, pp. 59-63.

36 Vita Bertilae abbatissae Caleusis, ed. Levison, W., MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum (Berlin, 1913), pp. 101–9 Google Scholar.

37 P. Siffrin, ‘Das Walderdorffer Kalendarfragment saec. viii und die Berliner Blatter eines Sacramentars aus Regensburg’, Ephemerides liturgicae, 47 (1933), pp. 201-24, idem, ‘Zwei Blatter in irischer Schrift’, pp. 1-39; Gamber, ‘Das Regensburg Fragment’, pp. 266-302.

38 See the discussion in Lapidge and Herren, Aldhelm, pp. 51, 59-132.

39 HE, iii, 28. For the possibility that in the tenth and eleventh centuries, archbishops of Canterbury may have given pontificals to newly consecrated suffragans, see Duniville, D., Liturgy and the Ecclesiastical History of Late Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge, 1992), p. 94 Google Scholar.

40 Hohler, ‘Some service books’, pp. 60-2.

41 Chavasse, Le Sacramentaire Gèlasien, pp. 340-4. Dr Hen informs me that southern Italian influence is otherwise unknown in Merovingian liturgical books.

42 HE, iv, 1. The possible connection between Theodore and Hadrian and the southern Italian element in the Anglo-Saxon liturgy has been much commented on; see Rollason, D., Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1989), pp. 68–9 Google Scholar, for example. For evidence of book traffic from England to Francia, see, for example, Lapidge and Herren, Aldhelm, pp. 149 and 167, correspondence showing that Aldhelm’s works were known at Peronne in his lifetime. See Hohler, ‘Some service books’, pp. 60-2, who favours Augustine as the bearer of the Gelasian sacramentary to England and Bishop Agilbert as its carrier to the continent. See Lapidge, M., ed., Anglo-Saxon Litanies of the Saints, Henry Bradshaw Society, 106 (London, 1991), pp. 13–25 Google Scholar, for Theodore’s influence on Anglo-Saxon liturgy.

43 Chavasse, Le Sacramentaire Gélasien., pp. 342-3; an explanation favoured by Mayr-Harting, Coming of Christianity, pp. 176-7.

44 Vogel, C., Medieval Liturgy: An Introduction to the Sources, rev. and trans. Storey, W. G. and Rasmussen, N. K. (Washington DC, 1986), pp. 39, 68, 79 Google Scholar.

45 The Boniface attribution was put forward by Siffrin, ‘Das Walderdorffer Kalendarfragment’, pp. 212-13, and used regularly as the name of the sacramentary by Gamber, who would also like to attribute the southern Italian element in the Vatican Gelasian book to Paulinus of Nola; see ‘Das kampanische Messbuch als Vorlaufer des Gelasianum: ist der hl. Paulinus von Nola der Verfasser?’, Sacris erudiri, 12 (1961), pp. 2-111. See also Bullough, ‘Alcuin and the kingdom of heaven’, p. 168, on the supposed Boniface connection.

46 A hymn in the Antiphonary of Bangor has been attributed to Columbanus’ pen by M. Lapidge; see ‘Columbanus and the “Antiphonary of Bangor”’, Peritia, 4 (1985), pp. 104-16.

47 See, for example, P. O’Connor, ‘St Columbanus’ Society. The modern disciples of the saint’, in Mélanges Columbaniens. Actes du congrès international de Luxeuil 20-23 juillet 1930, Associations des amis de St Columban de Luxeuil (Paris, nd), pp. 413-16.

48 Guérout, J., ‘S. Fare’, and ‘Faremoutiers’, in Dictionnaire d’histoire et de geographie ecclésiastiques, 16 (Paris, 1967), pp. 505–31, 534–5 Google Scholar. Guérout, J., in L’abbaye royale Notre Dame dejouarre, 2 vols (Paris, 1961), 1, pp. 1–67 Google Scholar; Dierkens, ‘Prolégomènes’, pp. 381-2.

49 M. B. Moretón, ‘Roman sacramentaries and ancient prayer traditions’, Studia patristica, 15 (1984), pp. 577-80.

50 See, for example, Siffrin’s analysis of the Christmas and St Stephen masses in the Regensburg Fragment, ‘Zwei Blätter’, pp. 11–14.

51 See the extremely valuable comments in Hen’s chapter (pp. 19-30) on uniformity of practice in liturgical matters.