Images of Sanctity in Eddius Stephanus ' Life of Bishop Wilfrid, An Early English Saint's Life (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Images of Sanctity in Eddius Stephanus' Life of Bishop Wilfrid, An Early English Saint's Life Harry Rosenberg William Trent Foley . Images of Sanctity in Eddius Stephanus' Life of Bishop Wilfrid, An Early English Saint's Life. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992 Pp. x + 174. $59.95. This concise study is the outgrowth of Foley's doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago in 1984, "St. Wilfrid of York as Pius Pater: A Study of Late Roman Piety in Anglo-Saxon England." On-going diligent research and thought are clearly reflected in this monograph. [End Page 358] Foley's "ultimate goal is to illuminate the theological convictions that undergird Stephen's Life" (vi). The author declares that it is his further intention to "question some assumptions traditionally made by theologians and historians" by demonstrating to theologians "that the Dark Ages had a deep interest in theological issues" and to historians "that the study of Christianity in early Anglo-Saxon England can entail a good deal more than an investigation into ecclesiastical and dynastic politics" (vii). Foley's focus in the first instance is "not Wilfrid, but Stephen's Wilfrid" (vi), an approach which he has adopted from current studies devoted to research in the Gospels. To achieve his goal Foley discusses the Vita of Wilfrid as history or hagiography in the first chapter. Wilfrid as heroic defender of Roman religion or bane of eighteenth-century Protestant critics is quickly identified and then set aside because it is Stephen's religious convictions that Foley seeks. Also, for what he means by the phrase "religious convictions" the author declares that a broader and less "parochial" definition is needed. This introductory chapter deals with the following topics: how religious convictions influence the "hagiographical narrative," what Foley describes as "Internal vs. External History," and then his main concern—the theological component in hagiography. This is followed by some insightful observations about the medieval saint's life as a typology significant to contemporaries, not because of its facticity but rather "for what it signifies about the reality of God" (11). Foley concludes this foundational chapter with an assessment of "The Nature and Function of Stephen's Life of Wilfrid" (13-20). In his second chapter Foley, taking his cue from William Stubbs, seeks to rescue the Life of Wilfrid from those scholars who ignored Stubb's warning that the all-pervasive Germanic factor in Anglo-Saxon England was notably lacking in the ecclesiastical realm. Even though modern scholars found Beowulf in Stephen's treatment of Wilfrid, our hagiographer was reminded of the heroes of the Scriptures, "apostles, prophets, and patriarchs." And so Foley finds Stephen's role—models for his saint in Christ and Paul, a theme he continues in the next chapter, "Wilfrid as Type of Christ. . . . Pius Pater." Foley then provides a provocative analysis of Wilfrid as bishop as compared and contrasted to his fellow bishops in Rome and Lyon, concluding with a passage concerning "Wilfrid's Hybrid Episcopal Piety." Rounding out the narrative is a discussion of what Wilfrid and Cuthbert represented in the seventh-century Christianity of the West: asceticism or martyrdom; the distinction within episcopal authority between the personal and the official. He concludes the main narrative with a sober assessment as to which of these seventh-century heroes of the faith is the most popular today. Cuthbert is the clear winner. The narrative is supplemented by four appendices, technical in nature, e.g., scriptural and patristic indices to Stephen's Life, word comparisons of "Confessor, Prophet, and Apostle" in Stephen's vita and the Anonymous Life of St. Cuthbert. The bibliography (153-63) lists the ancient and medieval printed sources as well as the modern works utilized by Foley. I find some editing problems here as well as perhaps odd choices, e.g., why Hefele's Conciliengeschichte in its 1896 English version but no reference to Hefele-Leclercq, Histoire des Conciles? One would surely want to cite volume two as well as volume one of A. H. M. Jones' monumental [End Page 359] The Later Roman Empire . . . since it contains the massive documentation for the narrative. For Bede's works, I miss J. M...