Abstract
The concepts of humility and self-denial are deeply alien to contemporary society, mired as it is in the narcissism of a life lived out on the public stage of social media, and as states of mind they are fairly unfamiliar within academe now too, which is driven by a need to trumpet one’s importance or originality in order to get ahead. The religious framework within which these qualities sat self-evidently for medieval writers and readers has also become a foreign country to most modern audiences. This chapter proposes humility as an “emotion plot” rather than a character trait. In that light, it looks at the ways in which Latin hagiographers writing in England about the saints of England presented humility in action, evaluating the extent to which we are shown humility as unappealing humiliation or, rather, as realistic self-appraisal. Were the hagiographers just following convention? Did they present the humility of women differently from that of men? The enquiry concludes with a close look at the final book of the Liber Confortatorius by Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, eleventh-century England’s most prolific hagiographer, in which, addressing his former pupil-turned anchoress, Eve, he offered extensive advice on humility.
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Notes
- 1.
Rebekah Modrak and Jamie Vander Broek, eds, Radical Humility: Essays on Ordinary Acts (Cleveland, OH: Belt Publishing, 2021).
- 2.
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility, ed. Mark Alfano, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini (London: Routledge, 2020).
- 3.
Aaron C. Weidman and Jessica L. Tracy, “Is Humility a Sentiment?” Behavioural and Brain Sciences 40 (2017): e251. See also V. Saroglou, C. Buxant, and J. Tilquin, “Positive Emotions as Leading to Religion and Spirituality”, The Journal of Positive Psychology 3 (2008): 165–73. On emotional plots, see P. Ekman, “An Argument for Basic Emotion”, Cognition and Emotion 6:3–4 (1992): 194.
- 4.
Aaron C. Weidman, Joey T. Cheng and Jessica L. Tracy, “The Psychological Structure of Humility”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 114(1) (2018): 153–178, at 155.
- 5.
Weidman, Cheng and Tracy, “The Psychological Structure of Humility,” 154.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Jane Foulcher, Reclaiming Humility Four Studies in the Monastic Tradition (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2015); Grace Hamman, “Matter of Meekness: Reading Humility in Late Medieval England” (Unpublished PhD thesis, Duke University, 2019). https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/18676
- 8.
Foulcher, Reclaiming Humility, 174.
- 9.
Hamman, “Matter of Meekness”, 16.
- 10.
Ibid., 10.
- 11.
On hagiography as normative and creating an “emotional community” thereby, cf. Barbara Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006), 25.
- 12.
Bertram Colgrave, ed. and trans., Two Lives of St Cuthbert, reprint (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985 (1940)), 60–139.
- 13.
See the summary in Alan Thacker, “Wilfrid, his Cult and his Biographer,” in Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint, ed. N.J. Higham (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2013), 11–13.
- 14.
Anon., Vita S. Cuthberti IV.1 (Colgrave, Two Lives, 110–1): “eadem in corde humilitas, eadem in uestitu eius uilitas erat”.
- 15.
Colgrave, Two Lives, 112–13: “cum fratribus pacem implens, tenens quoque humilitatem…”.
- 16.
Isidore, De ecclesiasticis officiis II.v.17, ed. C.W. Lawson, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 113 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1989), 63. This difference is picked out in the careful analysis of these texts by Clare Stancliffe in “Disputed Episcopacy: Bede, Acca, Stephen’s Life of Wilfrid and the early prose Lives of St Cuthbert,” Anglo-Saxon England 41 (2014), 16.
- 17.
Bertram Colgrave, ed. and trans. The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus 11, reprint (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985 (1927)), 24–5. The precise dating for the text was proposed by Clare Stancliffe, “Dating Wilfrid’s Death and Stephen’s Life,” in Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint, 17–26.
- 18.
As Thacker put it, “Stephen’s own contribution to the debate was to appropriate and upstage the Lindisfarne Life’s presentation of its hero’s sanctity;” “Wilfrid: His Cult and His Biographer,” 12.
- 19.
Hamman, “Matter of Meekness”, 10.
- 20.
Bede, Vita S. Cuthberti 26 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 242–3): “monachicae uitae rigorem sollicitus obseruare gaudebat”.
- 21.
On Bede’s recourse to Gregorian stylisation of Cuthbert as ideal monk-pastor, see Alan Thacker, “Bede’s Ideal of Reform,” in Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society, ed. P. Wormald (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), 138–42.
- 22.
“pauca sed fortia de pace et humilitate”.
- 23.
Bede, Vita S. Cuthberti 39 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 282–3).
- 24.
Anon., Vita S. Cuthberti II.2 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 76–7): “humiliter propter frigorem fricans et calefaciens”.
- 25.
Genesis 18.1–8. The anonymous writes sicut patriarchae Abrahe in ualle Mambre angeli in forma uirorum apparuerunt (“just as angels appeared to the patriarch Abraham in the valley of Mamre in the form of men”), Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 76–7.
- 26.
Bede, Vita S. Cuthberti 7 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 176–9). On Bede’s pastoral agenda, see Thacker, “Bede’s Ideal of Reform”.
- 27.
Anon., Vita S. Cuthberti II.3 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 80–1): “humiliter proni in terram, lambentes pedes eius …. et calefacientes odoribus suis”.
- 28.
In Bede’s version of the story, he specifies that the animals are quadrupedia quae uulgo lutraeae uocantur (“four-footed creatures which are commonly called otters”); Vita S. Cuthberti 10 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 190–1).
- 29.
Dominic Alexander, Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008), 46.
- 30.
Bede, Vita S. Cuthberti 10 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 190–1). Alexander observes, “at the core of the story, in terms of animal miracles, is the symbolism of divine hierarchy,” Saints and Animals, 46.
- 31.
Anon. Vita S. Cuthberti III.5 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 102–3): “humili uoce ueniam indulgentie deposcens”.
- 32.
Bede, Vita S. Cuthberti 20 (Colgrave, Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 222–5).
- 33.
Alexander, Saints and Animals, 44–6.
- 34.
Nick Higham, “Wilfrid and Bede’s Historia,” in Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint, 56.
- 35.
Colgrave, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid, 6–7.
- 36.
On Stephen’s use of biblical typology see Mark Laynsmith, “Anti-Jewish Rhetoric in the Life of Wilfrid,” in Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint, 71–3.
- 37.
Colgrave, Life of Bishop Wilfrid, 12–13.
- 38.
Stancliffe, “Disputed Episcopacy,” 17.
- 39.
Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions Publishing, 2007), 190.
- 40.
This was demonstrated in great detail for the case of Oswald by Clare Stancliffe, “Oswald ‘Most Holy and Most Victorious King of the Northumbrians’,” in Oswald. Northumbrian King to European Saint, ed. C. Stancliffe and E. Cambridge (Stamford: Paul Watkins Publishing, 1995), 33–83.
- 41.
HE III.3.2 and 6.2, ed. M. Lapidge, trans. P. Chiesa, Beda. Storia degli Inglesi, 2 vols. (Rome/Milan: Valla/Mondadori, 2008–10), II.22 and 34.
- 42.
Stancliffe, “Oswald,” 63–4. Stancliffe subsequently (65–6) suggests that Bede’s attribution of humility to Oswald, under the influence of his own monastic background, was doubtful as a reflection of reality.
- 43.
HE III.14.4, ed. Lapidge, Beda, II.68.
- 44.
HE III.14.6, ed. Lapidge, Beda, II.70.
- 45.
HE III.28.3, ed. Lapidge, Beda, II.146.
- 46.
HE IV.2.3, ed. Lapidge, Beda, II.172.
- 47.
HE IV.3.1, ed. Lapidge, Beda, II.174. This is my translation; Colgrave translated the phrase manu sua leuauit (where the word for “hand” is in fact singular) as “lifted him on to the horse with his own hands”, which presents a funnier scene of holy man-handling than giving someone a hand up on to a horse really is, I think.
- 48.
Bede, In Cantica Canticorum Libri VI, pref., ed. D. Hurst, Bedae Venerabilis Opera, Pars II: Opera Exegetica, 2B, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 119B (Turnhout: Brepols, 1983), 167.
- 49.
HE IV.6–10 (Barking), IV.17–18 (Æthelthryth), IV.21 (Hild).
- 50.
Aldhelm, De uirginitate prose and verse, ed. R. Ehwald, Aldhelmi Opera, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 15 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1919).
- 51.
Prose De uirginitate 8–9, ed. Ehwald, Aldhelmi Opera, 235–8; M. Lapidge and M. Herren, eds and trans., Aldhelm. The Prose Works (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1979), 64–6. On Aldhelm’s relationship to earlier writing on virginity, see Lapidge and Herren, Aldhelm, 55–6.
- 52.
De uirginitate 10, ed. Ehwald, Aldhelmi Opera, 239; Lapidge and Herren, Aldhelm, 67.
- 53.
De uirginitate 16, ed. Ehwald, Aldhelmi Opera, 245; Lapidge and Herren, Aldhelm, 72.
- 54.
HE IV.17.2, ed. Lapidge, Beda, II.246.
- 55.
Vita S. Æthelwoldi 9, ed. and trans. Michael Lapidge and Michael Winterbottom, in Wulfstan of Winchester, Life of Æthelwold, Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 16–17.
- 56.
Foulcher, Reclaiming Humility, 88.
- 57.
Passio S. Eadmundi 3, ed. Michael Winterbottom, Three Lives of English Saints, Toronto Medieval Latin Texts (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1972), 70.
- 58.
Printed in Acta Sanctorum, Maii VI (1688), 375–95.
- 59.
Bede, HE II.2.3, ed. Lapidge, Beda, I.182–4.
- 60.
“Liquet ergo quam miti et humili corde iugum Christi tulerit ille Domini fidelis et prudens uicarius, qui assidebat; et quam dura ceruice ac tumido corde se iugo Domini rebellare prodiderint, qui astabant. Nec uero in sessione uel assurrectione, sed in mansuetudine ac dilectione fraterna cognoscitur homo Dei, cum et sedens clementissimus et stans seuissimus possit reperiri” (Acta Sanctorum Maii VI.389).
- 61.
The Vita was edited by Marvin L. Colker, “Texts of Jocelyn of Canterbury which relate to the history of Barking Abbey,” Studia Monastica 7 (1965): 383–460.
- 62.
“Hoc etiam inter preclaras uirtutes humilitatis eius exemplum uidetur memoratu iocundum, quod quadam die dum hidriam aquae plenam cum … Lefleda subiectis humeris in uecte portaret et utraeque deficientes inualidis uiribus onus deponerent, ut sibi despicabilis dixit, “Apparet quam inutiles habeamur et quanto rectius efficaciora seculi mancipia pascantur.” Pulcre autem defectum affectatae uirtutis in materiam retorsit humilitatis, cum ex ipsa imbecillitate maior ei uirtus accumularetur quod robustissimo animo suis uiribus fortior inueniretur” (Colker, “Texts of Jocelyn,” 427; my translation).
- 63.
Bernard of Clairvaux, The Steps of Humility and Pride, trans. M. Ambrose Conway OCSO, Cistercian Publications (Kalamazoo MI: Cistercian Publications, 1973), 30 modified. Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, secunda secunda pars, 161.2.1 “Ergo videtur quod humilitas maxime sit circa cognitionem, quam de se aliquis aestimat parvam” (“Therefore it would seem that humility is mainly about knowledge, by which someone has a low estimation of themself”).
- 64.
Vita S. Edithe, ed. André Wilmart, “La légende de Ste. Édithe en prose et vers par le moine Goscelin,” Analecta Bollandiana 56 (1938): 5–101, 265–307.
- 65.
Vita S. Edithe I.12, ed. Wilmart, “La légende,” 70; trans. Michael Wright and Kathleen Loncar in Writing the Wilton Women. Goscelin’s Vita S. Edithe and Liber Confortatorius, ed. Stephanie Hollis (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 38.
- 66.
“Crede, o pater reuerende, nequaquam deterior mens Deo aspirante sub hoc habitabit tegmine quam sub caprina melote. Habeo Dominum meum, qui non uestem, sed mentem attendit” (Wilmart, “La légende”, 70); trans. Wright and Loncar, Writing the Wilton Women, 42–3, modified.
- 67.
Vita S. Edithe I.10, ed. Wilmart, “La légende,” 70; trans. Wright and Loncar, Writing the Wilton Women, 37.
- 68.
Vita S. Edithe I.10, ed. Wilmart, “La légende,” 70; trans. Wright and Loncar, Writing the Wilton Women, 39.
- 69.
Vita S. Mildrethe 23, ed. David W. Rollason, The Mildrith Legend: A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1982), 136, my translation. Cf. The Benedictine Rule 64 (on abbots), sciat … sibi oportere prodesse magis quam praeesse (“let him know that he ought to be of use more than to be in charge”).
- 70.
Vita S. Milburge 18 (“eo uerior ipsa mater et magistra, quo humilior erat omnium procuratrix et ministra”), from my own critical edition and translation, forthcoming; the text, not otherwise published, can be consulted in A.J.M. Edwards, “Odo of Ostia’s History of the Translation of St. Milburga and its Connection with the Early History of Wenlock Abbey” (Unpublished master’s thesis, University of London, 1960). https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/ee96d12e-8ebc-405b-9121-6698d3ce9eb1/1/
- 71.
Charles H. Talbot, ed., “The Liber Confortatorius of Goscelin of Saint Bertin”, Analecta Monastica 37 (1955): 1–117; Monika Otter, trans., Goscelin of St Bertin. The Book of Encouragement and Consolation (Liber Confortatorius), Library of Medieval Women (Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 2004).
- 72.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 84: “Quidam humillimus et tibi quondam deuotissimus”.
- 73.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 25: “Ex humili sumptis quartus petit astra quadrigis”. Otter, Goscelin, 19, modified.
- 74.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 91.
- 75.
Rebecca Hayward, “The Anchorite’s Progress: Structure and Motif in the Liber Confortatorius”, in Writing the Wilton Women. Goscelin’s Legend of Edith and Liber Confortatorius, ed. Stephanie Hollis, with W. R. Barnes, R. Hayward, K. Loncar and M. Wright (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 371.
- 76.
Formulae 9, ed. Carmela Mandolfo, Eucherii Lugdunensis Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae; Instructionum libri duo, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 66 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 68: “Pauimentum humiliatio uel afflictio animae siue in terrena declinatio; in psalmo: Adhaesit pauimento anima mea”.
- 77.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 91; Otter, Goscelin, 112.
- 78.
Hayward, “The Anchorite’s Progress”, 378–9.
- 79.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 92, 95, 99 and 100; trans. Otter, Goscelin, 114, 118, 124 and 125.
- 80.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 93; Otter, Goscelin, 115.
- 81.
Foulcher, Reclaiming Humility, 95.
- 82.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 92.
- 83.
Goscelin uses a string of invented diminutives: Beatula es, sanctula es, celo proximula es. Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 92; Otter, Goscelin, 113.
- 84.
“Ubi enim erat illa aedificans caritas a fundamento humilitatis, quod est Christus Iesus?”
- 85.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius,” 93; Otter, Goscelin, 115. As an aside it is rather fascinating that Goscelin’s confrère at Saint-Bertin, Folcard, reminisced in the preface to his life of their patron, Bertin, that their abbot, Bovo, had excoriated him thus “that I only take up the ground, like that useless fig-tree” (“quod solum terram occupem, ut ficus illa inutilis”, Vita S. Bertini, prologue, Acta Sanctorum, Septembris, II.604–13 at 604). One wonders whether both hagiographers were recalling the humiliations of the classroom at Saint-Bertin.
- 86.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 93; Otter, Goscelin, 115–16.
- 87.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 80.
- 88.
Hamman, “Matter of Meekness”, 5.
- 89.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 94; Otter, Goscelin, 117–18.
- 90.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 99; Otter, Goscelin, 124.
- 91.
“Tristior erit defleta culpa quam iactata iustitia.”
- 92.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 99; Otter, Goscelin, 124.
- 93.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 102; Otter, Goscelin, 128.
- 94.
Talbot, “Liber Confortatorius”, 103; Otter, Goscelin, 129: “ipsa est humilitas spe comitata”.
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Love, R. (2023). The Hagiographers of Early England and the Impossible Humility of the Saints. In: Sebo, E., Firth, M., Anlezark, D. (eds) Emotional Alterity in the Medieval North Sea World. Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33965-3_8
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