A quick review of the production Breton medieval hagiography identifies three if not four main periods of flowering of this literature: the oldest, which remains hypothetical, is the end of the Merovingian and no longer be evidenced by the first vita Samson [BHL 7478-7479] or at least if one assumes with JC Poulin that it is a reworking of the Carolingian era, with its "preliminary text "[BHL vacation] then it should assign to the character that the biographer, who calls Henoc designates as its main source: the primigenia vita composed by Enoch would be" still partially recognizable through supplements by the grafted reworker.
To overcome the lack of Breton hagiographical VI e-VIII e centuries It is tempting to turn to the east of the Breton peninsula, and to use any local production, but in Nantes, for example, where Christianity seems to have settled in the first half of the fourth th century, as to Angers or Tours, lean back martyrial "Children Nantes [BHL 2275-2277], completed by more than supplied Beatus [BHL 1064-1066] - Nantes unfortunately no interest for a short passage ̶ tells us less about the circumstances of the late-ancient Christianity as the idea that it was the clergy Nantes several centuries after the events. In fact, it is still getting Gregory of Tours ̶ beyond the multiple questions that his work is now the subject and even if, of course, the story must be factual whenever also interpreted in the context hortatory place where this author ̶ which provides us with the bulk of contemporary data, particularly as regards the consideration including Bishop Felix (+ 582) was demonstrated in respect of hermits as Friard, Besné established in the territory probably already spent by Britons, or the prelate's relationships with them, or how they were led to honor St. Nazaire. About Felix, it is surprising that this prelate had done at the time the subject of any hagiographic treatment, even by his friend Venance Fortunat, author among others of the Breton vita Aubin Bishop of Angers (+ towards 550) [BHL 234], and that of Poitou Paterno, bishop of Avranches (+ towards 564) [BHL 6477], whose late hagiographer namesake of the Bishop of Vannes was pretty much inspired. Only in the late tenth century e Martin (Vertou), presented as a disciple of Felix, has attracted the attention of biographers: while Vertou had become part of the territory of the duchy of Brittany, of Létald Micy devoted to the founder of the local abbey a book [BHL 5667-5668], perhaps inspired by an earlier composition, whose background is very "political." Ermeland, whose apostolate room is located at the junction of VII-VIII e th centuries, has a biography written without doubt the late eighth century e [BHL 3851], but which perhaps belongs to the rich production hagiographic Abbey of Saint-Wandrille Fontenelle.
The Carolingian Renaissance is truly the golden age of hagiography Breton: we can mention the texts on Guénolé by Clement [BHL vacation] and Uurdisten [BHL 8957-8958, 8959, 8960], at Malo Bili [BHL 5116], with Magloire [BHL 5139-5147, Samson [BHL 7481, 7483]) as a pivot with the vita Paul Aurelian, written by Uurmonoc [BHL 6585], which, by its precise dating (884), can order any part of this production and identify partially "the small world of literary Breton. The date of the vita of Leri [BHL 4797-4798] still under discussion, as well as that of several documents in the case of literary Melaine, bishop of Rennes [BHL 5887-5888, 5891]: moreover, this prelate, Like the saints of Nantes, is not for the cohort of the saints of Celtic origin and its ministry, attested historically primarily concerns the diocese of Rennes, who until mid-ninth century e , remained outside the area controlled by Britons. Finally, perhaps he should speculate the existence of a Carolingian text devoted to a hypothetical Hoarvian saint, the first part of the vita his son Hoarvé aka Herve [BHL 3859] would have preserved the remains.
B. Merdrignac is inclined to think, for its part, the vitae Brittany from the Carolingian period are the result of "a process of rewriting and updating of earlier versions Missing since. Indeed, these were "devoid of economic efficiency in the ninth century religious" characterized primarily by the adoption in Britain of Roman reckoning, of the Benedictine rule and territorial diocesan organization, but it is not impossible "to find hope in these texts of the ninth century traces of the concerns underlying the editors lost their authors claim to be guided." Thus, taking into account the seminal work of S. Reinach, incorporating the proposals of L. Fleuriot, with appropriate adjustments made by A. Chédeville on " hypothetical treaty between Clovis and the Britons' past around 500 AD, renewed reflection on Mr. Rouche millenarian expectation that characterizes much of Christianity in the late fifth century e, B Merdrignac advance the idea attractive "if Breton Saints went on the continent following the baptism of Clovis," after the treaty of alliance concluded by the inhabitants of the Breton peninsula with the Merovingian dynasty ̶ as indirectly confirms the fact that through the prism of a documentation is mostly hagiographic, as just noted, this wave of immigration, mainly composed of clergy, could obscure the memory of an earlier wave, which was essentially military in nature ̶ , "because the island community church supported the idea that conversion of the Frankish king came to inaugurate the millennium expected" production Breton hagiographical Carolingian times, which is also part of a elitist approach for correcting the language and style that has sometimes resulting abstruse texts, we therefore "passed, as have done palimpsests, precious relics of the spiritual atmosphere which opened the" age of saints "in mainland Britain." The hypothesis proposed by B. Merdrignac is not invalidated by recent findings rather pessimistic about the state of sub-Christianization of the island of Britain from IV to VI e th century, it could instead contribute in part to explain This massive exodus of clergy island, while leaving open the prospect of a first stage of Christianity west of the Breton peninsula from bishoprics established Corseul and Carhaix.
disorders linked to incursions and permanent establishments of the Scandinavians in Britain and its margins have resulted from the death of Solomon in 874, the decay of local institutions, including that of scriptoria monastic who were the main centers of (re) writing and preservation of hagiographical works. The tribulations of the relics of saints in Brittany and their "instructions" are respective to the origin of dissemination to a relatively wide hagiography predominantly 'local', this exodus has also contributed to the paradoxical preservation of the oldest manuscripts, whose fate would doubtless have been local other. In addition, it is likely that among the monks who fled the UK, some were welcomed in their communities by exile of Breton origin to which they have thus given the opportunity to recharge their own production hagiographic. That explanation, moreover convincing, given by H. Bourdellès on the circumstances of the composition to 925 of the vita ancient holy Judoca [BHL 4504] in the Saint-Josse-sur-Mer.
Conversely, should be considered during the exile in the integration of traditional Breton hagiography 'exogenous'. The most striking examples of this phenomenon refer to Cornwall, which had hosted a party of Britons fleeing their homeland. Certainly influences have largely played again in the direction of extension of continental cult of saints, but Cornish traditions have the opportunity to infiltrate 'Breton hagiographical production: it is these circumstances that we are For our part, tried, for example, to associate membership at the Abbey of Landoac the book on the brothers Guénolé Jacut and Guéthenoc [BHL 4113-4114], a text which, like vita of Turiau ( version known as the Clermont) [BHL 8342d], contains references to Constantine and Gereint. The case of vita of St. Ethbin [BHL 2621] is more complex text, which formed a chapter of the vita brevior St. Guénolé [BHL 8956d] and found in the cartulary Landévennec , compiled towards the middle of the XI th century, saw its circulation mainly ensured " by mss of Nordic origin together with abridged versions of the Life of St. Guénolé ", prompting JC Poulin suggests that this legend" probably originated in northern France rather than Cornwall "and its junction with that of St. Guénolé "refers to the time of the presence of the Cornish community in the region after 913 Montreuil," but Ethbin is presented as a disciple of St Samson of Dol, it is in connection with a certain Similien, abbot of Monastery Tauracus (unlocated) and a monk of the monastery called Guénolé. This award is index pretty sure that there was a cult of St. Guénolé Dole, but that the cult was rendered to a separate namesake of the founder of Landévennec. At the time of compiling the cartulary of their abbey, the monks were demanding Landévennec possessioncula said Lancolvett villa that is the source of that spanned Locquénolé and then on a larger area (a mare usque ad mare ), but the same place is attested from 1163 as a dependency of the Abbey and as Landoac enclave of the bishopric of Dol in that of Leo. E. Vallerie, who wants to recognize the toponym Tauracus the ancient name of Taulé writes that Locquénolé "is the only point where the succession are documented and the influence of Landévennec Dol. For our part, we believe that it is less influenced than Dol Landoac that occurred at Locquénolé. It should also take into account the fact that the prelate who sat at St. Pol de Leon in the days when monks Landévennec claimed possession of this locus was a Omnes, originally from Cornwall and domestic comtale home, interested in Landévennec that retains its preeminent status among the various Breton abbeys, but nothing prevents the cult of St. Guénolé to Locquénolé was originally delivered to the holy name of Dole and owes nothing to founder again Landévennec. Moreover, the undisputed record borrowing hagiography of St. Guénolé contained in the book on Jacut Guéthenoc and are perhaps less brand influence Landévennec in place as the index of trade with Landoac, which the vita of St. Ethbin constitute the consideration.
JC Poulin, who agreed fairly well with the findings of H. The Bourdellès on vita of St. Judoca, does not exclude a similar phenomenon, a little later, however, regarding the probable composition of the vita former St. Lunaire [BHL vacation] to the abbey Loire at Fleury.
We know how the abbey of Fleury had established links with Britain at the time of troubles in Scandinavia, and eventually be in the XI th century, a true "studio bridge" of hagiography Breton , which has been preserved including the rehabilitation of vita of St. Paul Aurelian by Vital [BHL 6586], and a new vita of St. Judoca by Isembard [BHL 4505-4510].
Finally, note that, according to JC Poulin, the story of the theft of relics of St Malo and their return to Britain in Saintonge [BHL 5114] was made "by a monk who worked in Paris in the X e century, after 920 ". The vita of St. Brieuc continues to question hagiologues: under his full name Brimaël ( Briomaglus ), which is essentially a saint honored Low in Cornwall, the character he had been in the Carolingian period, a biography composed in the abbey of Saint-Serge d'Angers? The vita e eleventh century [BHL 1463-1463a], the same output Scriptorium, we learned that they had long ignored on the spot that had been bishop Brieuc, which undoubtedly is a strong argument to consider the composition of a first version of the text before the late tenth century e in a context of tension between the monastery of Val Trégor (Tréguier) and Twin Valley (Saint-Brieuc). As for the vita of St. Guénaël and the story of the translation of his relics [BHL 8818-8819], which should probably reduce the time of writing at the end of XI th century they may have written to the priory of Corbeil.
J.-L. Deuffic opportunely recalled in a recent paper that "the 'storm' Norman on the lands of Britain alone does not explain the dispersion of the relics. Monks gyrovagues flights intentional, there are many situations that led to the fragmentation of these 'plots of Eternity' "But it seems that the princely initiatives, including this researcher also mentions about the monastery Plélan, richly endowed by Solomon, have not yet done, here or elsewhere, subject to a systematic consideration : perhaps indeed could one explain the presence of relics in Brittany sanctuaries Francia - as was the case at Chelsea, for example - quite well before the era of Viking raids in Britain through practice of giving and gift-cons whose relics might have been the object and which, like the flight, formed, as was recently recalled Ana Rodriguez and Reyna Pastor, "the fundamental forms of transfer of ownership to the early Middle Ages"?
I must then wait for the XI th century in Britain to see a revival of literature devoted to the saints, renewal which, to a large extent, is part of the Gregorian reform, the central medieval Breton then known, until the turn of the XII-XIII e e centuries sustained activity recreation hagiographic. This work was made from real "experts", usually attached to episcopal sees, at least when the bishops themselves were not the authors of the texts concerned. These are obviously devoted to the saints that tradition presented as bishops: Melaine at Rennes [BHL 5889-5890, 5893], Samson at Dol [BHL 7486], Malo Alet [BHL 5120], Tugdual [BHL 8350-8353 ] and Conval [BHL 2018b] to Tréguier Goëznou [BHL 3608], Goulven [BHL 3610] and Ténénan [BHL 7999] Saint-Pol-de-Leon, Corentin in Quimper [BHL 1953 and Suppl.] Patern in Vannes probably ̶ whose vita [BHL 6480], who was in Britain during the late twelfth century e , reflects, as we said, complex relationship with that Saint Pair of Avranches by Venance Fortunat, and with the Welsh tradition ̶ and perhaps Gobrien [BHL vacation], but also to those who had shown the Church Breton: abbots as Gildas [ BHL 3541], Meen [BHL 5944], Suliau [BHL vacation], as well Conwoion [BHL 1946], founder of Redon, character amply attested acts in the practice and had already been the subject of a hagiographic treatment in the ninth century e under collective Gesta sanctorum Rotonensium [BHL 1945], as monks or hermits Armel [BHL vacation], Herve [BHL 3859-3860], Maude [BHL 5722], Ronan [BHL 7336], and novi sancti as Goustan Rhuys [BHL vacation], Maurice Carnoët [BHL 5765-5766] and Robert Arbrissel [BHL 7259], not to mention a few lay people, mostly characters extraction royal princes 'historical' as Judith [BHL 4503] or 'legendary' as Melar [BHL 5906c-5904, 5903] Gurthiern [BHL 3720-3722] Efflam [BHL 2664]. Here also give full scope to two Breton hagiographical texts devoted to female characters, in this case vita of Ninnoc [BHL 6242], princess became a nun, but whose personality and destiny unfortunately not pertain to the field history, and the "wonderful and uplifting story of King Azénor Brest and his daughter, wife Goëllo ( and pia pulchra historia Regis Brest Azenor suae filiae and uxoris of Gouellou ), which forms the first part of the volume devoted to Budoc [BHL 1478]. Finally, we need to again highlight the relative paucity of hagiography Nantes which we do little more than three examples at that time: the short story of the dramatic death of Bishop Gohard [BHL 3712], killed in his cathedral by the Normans, the book on Viau [BHL 8698], which presents itself primarily as a manual of pilgrimage, and vita of Benedict Massérac [BHL 1145], including the time of composition is very uncertain and surprisingly finished a saint Greek origin. In any event, the records of these two saints whose shrines respectively depended the abbey of Tournus and that of Redon, deserve careful reconsideration.
Several biographers of this era are known, while others are 'profiles': the most famous are Marbodius Rennes, but was not interested, it seems to matter Breton except maybe the story of a miracle of St. Melaine [BHL 5893], as suggested by F. Dolbeau ̶ Baudry of Dol, author of a renovation of the Vita of St. Samson [BHL 7486] and was also sought to write a spiritual biography of Robert Arbrissel [BHL 7259] consistent with the expectations of the abbess of Fontevraud ̶ and probably Guillaume le Breton, a native of Leon, chaplain and cantor of Philip Augustus, whose hagiographic work supposedly 'rediscovered' in favor of the recent controversy over the dating of vita of St. Goëznou [BHL 3608], seems to have consisted mainly in Gesta episcoporum Leonensium written at the very end of XII e century, whose texts on to St. Goulven [BHL 3610] and St. Ténénan [BHL 7999] form the other remains poor. Regarding the literary treatment of novi sancti must pay particular attention to the production of Etienne de Fougeres, bishop of Rennes from 1168 to 1178, which remains largely unknown because it was obscured by a more famous book The Book of ways, writing in the vernacular. If Etienne probably belonged not to the dynasty of powerful barons of Ferns, the nickname refers to the probably as a member of their familia, at least as an inhabitant the capital of their principality. Chaplain of King Henry II, Stephen had long committed to secular, but "a sudden onset warning him of his imminent death would have diverted to the development of works tougher." Thus, according to his contemporary and friend Robert, abbot of Mont-Saint-Michel, Etienne wrote a vita William Firmat [BHL 8914]: the hermit long career of the latter experienced a stage of Brittany in the region Vitre, before those of Fontaine-Géhard and Savigny and its final implementation Mantilly. Also according Robert du Mont, Stephen was également le biographe de l’ermite Vital de Tierceville, dit de Mortain, devenu le premier abbé de Savigny [BHL 8707]. Enfin, on lui a parfois attribué la composition de la vita d’un moine de la même abbaye, Hamon de Landécot [BHL 3752], originaire de Saint-Etienne-en-Coglès, dans le diocèse de Rennes. Il est intéressant de noter combien la dimension hagio-géographique des personnages auxquels s’est intéressé Etienne de Fougères dépasse assez largement les limites du diocèse dont il était sans doute originaire et dont il avait un temps présidé les destinées, pour recouvrir le territoire contrôlé par la famille Fougeres.
But it was the "Autumn of the Middle Ages" - on purpose we take the famous formula of J. Huizinga - Breton hagiography that production, mainly on the basis of a recycling process for earlier texts was an important development, inversely proportional to its literary mediocrity. This success, gained early in the fifteenth century e, as is seen in particular by the ideological recovery she has been so from the ducal dynasty and several lineages of aristocratic Britain Rohan in particular, has permanently extended XVI e century with the printing of various Breviaries diocesan canonical compiled by ad hoc committees, and XVII th century with the publication in 1636 of the book the Dominican Albert the Great, of Morlaix, which, through its French paraphrase largely adulterated, we passed the remains of numerous texts of the late-medieval era now lost, including those relating Briac, Conogan, Hernin , Jaoua, Ke, RIOC, Tanguy (Haude and sister). The main reasons for this success are three:
- intensification of pastoral beggar, with a massive use of the exemplum that enhances the effectiveness of preaching.
- (re) construction of history "national" of the duchy, with the use by the chroniclers of hagiographic material to illuminate the origins of Brittany.
- The evolution of editorial practices, which now combines a 'literature to digest, with more manageable sizes, which causes the portable breviary.
Consequently, from the middle of the thirteenth century e , earlier texts have been in Britain for recycling which means less of rewrites by interpolations and abbreviations by less than cuts. Moreover, the few creations 'original' of late medieval Breton, for example vitae of Goneri [BHL 3611] and Mériadec [BHL 5939b], made to strengthen the claims of Rohan to the ducal crown, or texts devoted to Herbot [BHL 3821] and Solomon [BHL, P. 1082], probably written after the war of succession of Brittany, are presented fairly widely as centos.
© Yves-André Bourges 2010
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