Stephen of Ripon’s Vita S. Wilfridi: Genre, Political Theory and Historical Representation in the Early Middle Ages

Abstract

This article argues that the battle narratives in Stephen of Ripon’s Vita S. Wilfridi (VSW) intervene in and illuminate the connected histories of genre, political theory, and historical representation in the early Middle Ages. As I demonstrate, battle narratives are ubiquitous in early medieval “histories,” but only tend to occur in saints’ lives in the context of miracle sto- ries. Moreover, the manner of representing battle in both genres preserves a distinction be- tween political and religious spheres of action. However, the battle narratives in the VSW con- tain no miracles; instead, they argue that Wilfrid’s sanctity as bishop was transferred to King Ecgfrith and Northumbria as actors on the stage of political history. To carry out this argument, Stephen intersperses his battle narratives with discourses of ideal kingship and biblical typology. The model of sanctity he thus deploys, and the theory of closely coordinated royal and ecclesiastical power that underpins it, reflect a missionary ideology that would later be enacted in Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica and in histories from the Carolingian period. Stephen’s novel use of the battle narrative suggests that the boundary between vitae and historiae was both permeable and productive; it enabled him and others to construct a sacralised political sphere in historical narrative.