We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Kings and princes who were classed as ‘innocent martyrs’ or ‘passion-sufferers’ because they were thought to have been murdered in Christlike circumstances were known in many parts of Europe in the Middle Ages. This paper is about six Anglo-Saxon saints of this type, who are also distinguished by their youth. All of them were thought to have been boys or teenage males when they were martyred. To date, work on these saints has concentrated on questions concerning the origins of their cults, and their relationship to the institution of kingship. The purpose of this paper, however, is to draw attention to the ways in which certain religious communities redefined their sanctity in the late tenth and eleventh century, and to make some tentative suggestions about the possible uses to which these cults were put in this milieu.
1 This type of sanctity (variously labelled as ‘innocent martyrdom’, souffre-passion, and strasto-terptsi) was known in Bohemia, England, France, Kievan Russia, and in Scandinavia. See now Folz, R. Les Saints rois du moyen âge en occident (VIe-XIIIe siècles)Subsidia Hagiographica, 68 (Brussels, 1984), esp. pp. 23–45, 57–9 Google Scholar; ‘Trois Saints rois “Souffre-passion” en Angleterre: Osvin de Deira, Ethelbert d’Est Anglie, Edouard le Martyr’, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres: Comptes rendus des séances de l’année 1980, pp. 36–49; Ingham, N. W. ‘The sovereign as martyr, East and West’, Slavic and East European Journal, 17 (1973), esp. pp. 1–2;Google Scholar ‘The Martyred Prince and the Question of Slavic Cultural Continuity in the Early Middle Ages’, in Birnbaum, H. and Flier, M. S., eds, Medieval Russian Culture — California Slavic Studies, 12 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984), pp. 31–53 Google Scholar.
2 See, for example, Rollason, D. W. ‘The cults of murdered royal saints in Anglo-Saxon England’, Anglo-Saxon England, 11 (1983), pp. 1–22;Google Scholar Thacker, A. T. ‘Kings, saints and monasteries in pre-Viking Mercia’, MidlHist, 10 (1985), pp. 1–25 Google Scholar. There is also an extensive literature devoted to the origins of the cult of Edward the Martyr and the question of its political significance. See now Ridyard, S. J. The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: a Study of WestSaxon and East Anglian Cults (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 154–71, 243–51 Google Scholar.
3 The seven Lives are: (1) Byrhtferth, Passio SS. Ethelberti ataue Ethelredi regiae stirpis puerorum (Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, Antiauae et Mediae Aetatis • Subsidia Hagiographica, 6, 2 vols (Brussels, 1898–1901), with Novum Supplementum, ed. Fros, H. – Subsidia Hagiographica, 70 (Brussels, 1986)Google Scholar [hereafter BHL], no. 2643), in Arnold, T. ed., Symeonis Monachi opera omnia, RS, 2 vols (London, 1885), 2, pp. 1–13,Google Scholar as sections i-ix of Symeon of Durham’s Historia Regum;(2) Passio et translatio beatorum martyrum Ethelredi atque Elhelbricti (BHL 2641–2), ed. Rollason, D. W. The Mildreth Legend: a Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England (Leicester, 1982), pp. 90–104;Google Scholar (3) Passio S. €thelberti, regis et martyris (BHL 2627), ed. James, M. R. ‘Two Lives of St. Ethelbert, King and Martyr’, EHR, 32 (1917), pp. 236–44;Google Scholar (4) Passio S. Eadwardi, regis et martyris (BHL 2418), ed. Fell, C. Edward King and Martyr = Leeds Texts and Monograph, no 3 (Leeds, 1971), pp. 1–16;Google Scholar (5) Vita S. Kenelmi, regis et martiris (BHL 464m), transcribed from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 368, fols 80r-83v, in R. von Antropoff, ‘Die Entwick-lung der Kenelm-Legende’ (unpubl. inaugural dissertation, Bonn, 1965), pp. IV-XXIV; (6) Lectiones S. Kenelmi (BHL 2641m), transcribed from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 367, pt 2, fols 45r-48r, in von Antropoff, ‘Die Entwicklung’, pp. XXXIII-XXXVI; (7) Vita S. Wistani, Regis et Martyris (BHL 8975), preserved in three diverse thirteenth-and fourteenth-century recensions found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson A.287, fols 121–3V (ed. Macray, W. D. Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham ad Annum 141 S, RS (London, 1863), pp. 325–32 Google Scholar [hereafter Vita S. Wistani]), in Gotha, Landesbibliothek, MS 1.81, fols. 44r-v, and in London, BL, MS Harley 2253, fol. 140v(see Ker, N. R. ed., Facsimile of British Museum MS. Harley 2253, EETS, os 255 (Oxford, 1965), fol. 140V)Google Scholar.
4 The least certain is that of the Vita S. Wistani. None of three extant recensions is earlier than the thirteentli century, but textual parallels suggest that they all derive from a common source written at Evesham, possibly by Prior Dominic (fl. c. 1100-30). Jennings, J. C. ‘The writings of Prior Dominic of Evesham’, EHR, 77 (1962), pp. 298, 304 Google Scholar. Rollason, D. W. The Search for St. Wigstan, Prince Martyr of the Kingdom of Merda, Vaughan Papers in Adult Education, 27 (Leicester, 1981),Google Scholar p. 9, argues that the Gotha and Harley texts date from the ninth century, but the textual parallels, their form, and their manuscript context (Gotha 1.81 is a legendary of abbreviated vitae, while the other Lives in Harley 2253 are both abbreviated texts) suggest that they are condensed versions of the Life written at Evesham.
5 The Vita S. Kenelmi, for example, appears to have been composed between 1054 and c. 1075. The terminus a quo is established by the preface, which declares an intention to append some modern miracles to its account of the Saint’s life (fol. 8or), and the first of these miracles is said to have happened in the rime of Godwine, ‘who was abbot then’ (fol. 82r), implying that the text was composed after his death in 1053 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tr. Whitelock, D. Douglas, D. C., and Tucker, S. I. (London, 1961)Google Scholar (C, D), s.a. 1053). The text also appends miracles (fols 82v-83r) said to have occurred under Abbot Godric (1054-1066×68) and the first Norman abbot, Galanus (c. 1070–5), but these may be later additions to the text.
The exception to the pattern is the Passio SS. Ethelredi et Ethelberti, which seems to have been written up in the late tenth or early eleventh century, for the text is imbued with the language and style of Byrhtferth. See further, Lapidge, M. ‘Byrhtferth of Ramsey and the early sections of the Historia regum attributed to Symeon of Durham’, Anglo-Saxon England, 10 (1982), pp. 100–18 Google Scholar. Rollason, Mildreth Legend, pp. 15–18, argues for dependence on an earlier text now lost, but the words introducing the text need not imply a written source. Judging by the context, Byrhtferth is more likely to have been writing up a set of received oral legends.
6 The best explanation of the sudden flood of hagiography which appeared after the Conquest remains that it was a response to Norman doubts about the authority of certain cults. See Southern, R. W. Saint Anselm: a Portrait in a Landscape (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 312–20;Google Scholar Brett, M. ‘The Use of Universal Chronicle at Worcester’, in L’ Historiographie medievale en Europe, Paris, 29 marsier avril 1989 (Paris, 1991), pp. 280–1 Google Scholar.
7 The preface to the Vita S. Kenelmi fol. 8or, for example, mentions a number of earlier sources, but these seem to have comprised mainly songs and verse in the vernacular. See also Passio S. ìthelberti, vii (p. 241). The way in which the Lives were composed is explained in my forth coming study of these legends, The Idea of Innocent Martyrdom in Earlier Medieval England, pt 5.
8 Vita S. Wistani.pp. 326–31; ‘De Sancto Wistano’, Harley 2253, fol. 140v;’De Sancto Wistano’, Godia 1.81, fol. 44r-v.
9 Vita S. Kenelmi, fols 8ov, 81r(the text twice states his age!).
10 Passio SS. Ethelberti atque Ethelredi, section ii (p. 5).
11 Passio S. Eadwardi, p. 2, lines 1–5.
12 Passio SS. Ethelberti atque Ethelredi. section 3 (p. 6). See also, Lectiones S. Kenelmi, fol. 46r-v (the inner anguish of Cwenthryth, Kenelm’s murderer), and Vita S. Wistani, p. 328 (Brihtfirth’s lust for Queen Æflaed).
13 Passio S. Eadwardi, p. 8.12-14. See also p. 7.7-12 (Edward’s uncorrupt corpse is a sign of his innocentia).
14 Byrhtferth, Passio SS. Ethelberti atque Ethelredi section 3 (p. 7). See also sections 5 and 6 (p. 9).
15 Lectiones S. Kenelmi, fol. 45V. See also Vita S. Kenelmi, fol. 8or.
16 Lectiones S. Kenelmi, fol. 45r, quoting Wisd. 4.11: ‘Raptus est ne malicia mutaret intellectum illius, aut ne fictio deciperet animam illius.’ Kenelm’s Lives are notable for their scrupulous adherence to an orthodox Augustinian line on grace and free will: the Lives stress the Saint’s almost pre-Iapsarian purity, but God’s grace is the crucial ingredient in his sanctity. See also ibid., fols 4sr, 47r; Vita S. Kenelmi, fol. 8or.
17 Ætthelberht has innocentia cordis and is a rex innocens et simplex well before his death. See Passio S. Ethelberti, vii (p. 240), iii (p. 238).
18 De gestis regam Anglorum libri quinqué, ed. Stubbs, W. 2 vols, RS 90 (London, 1887-9), 1, pp. 263–4 Google Scholar.
19 There is for Edward the Marryr (d.978) the Vita S. Oswaldi (ed. Raine, J. Historians of the Church at York and its Archbishops, RS, 3 vols (London, 1879-94), 1, pp. 399–475)Google Scholar, an early account written by Byrhtferth of Ramsey between 995 and 1005, within 27 years of the murder (see Lapidge, M. The hermeneutic style in tenth-century Anglo-Latin literature’, Anglo-Saxon England, 4 (1975), pp. 91—3)Google Scholar. But this was produced for an audience of reformed monks (see also Millinger, S., ‘Liturgical Devotion in die Vita Oswaldi’, in King, M. H. and Stevens, W. M. eds, Saints, Scholars and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honour of Charles W. Jones, 2 vols (Collegeville, Minnesota, 1979), 1, pp. 239–64)Google Scholar, and already shows signs of moving towards the interpretation found in Edward’s Passio. For the rest, all of whose cults originated between 650 and 873/4, there are no records of their legends which seem to have been written before 975. The account of the murder of the Kentish princes in the Parker manu script of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (s.a. 640) is a marginal addition which dates from about 1100. Bately, J. M. ed., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: a Collaborative Edition, vol. 3, MSA (Cambridge, 1986), pp. xl–xli, 29, n. 3Google Scholar.
20 The cult of St Wigstan, for example, seems to have been focused upon his tomb in the mausoleum his grandfather, King Wiglaf (827-40), had built at Repton, and archaeology has shown that it was converted into a pilgrimage church, at great expense, soon after his death in about 850 and before 873/4, when the place was devastated by Vikings. See now, Taylor, H. M. ‘St. Wystan’s Church, Repton, Derbyshire: a reconstruction essay’, Archaeological Journal, 144 (1987), pp. 205–45;Google Scholar Biddle, M., ‘Archaeology, Architecture, and the Cult of Saints in Anglo-Saxon England’, in Butler, L. A. S. and Morris, R. K eds, The Anglo-Saxon Church: Papers in History, Architecture, and Archaeology in Honour of Dr H. M. Taylor — Council for British Archaeology, Research Report, 60 (London, 1986), pp. 16, 18, 22 Google Scholar. The only anomaly is the cult of St îthelberht, whose principal centre from the eleventh century, when it is first well attested, was not in his native East Anglia, but at Hereford Cathedral: see Thacker, ‘Kings, saints and monasteries’, pp. 16–18.
21 The centre of Kenelm’s cult, Winchcombe Abbey, for example, seems to have been set up by King Cenwulf of Mercia (796-821) as a family mausoleum, a royal archive, and as the administrative hub of his family’s own sub-kingdom centred on Winchcombe. See Levison, W. England and the Continent in the Eighth Century(Oxford, 1946), pp. 252–8;Google Scholar Bassett, S. R. ‘A probable Mercian royal mausoluem at Winchcombe, Gloucestershire’, Antiquaries Journal, 65 (1985), pp. 83–5 Google Scholar. Note that Shaftesbury Abbey should also be seen as a West Saxon royal Eigenkloster when Edward the Martyr’s cult emerged around 1000, even though this event post-dates the monasdc reform. See further, Aster’s Life of King Alfred, ed. Stevenson, W. H. and D. Whitelock (Oxford, 1959),Google Scholar section 98; Meyer, M. A. ‘Women and the tenth-century English monastic reform’, Revue Bénédictine, 86 (1977), pp. 341–2, 350 Google Scholar.
22 The prevailing view is that these cults were instruments in the forward march of royal authority. See esp. Rollason, ‘Murdered royal saints’, pp. 15–20; Mildreth Legend, pp. 41–51; Ridyard, Royal Saints, esp. pp. 169, 244–8.
23 On the culture and significance of royal sanctity in Germanic kingdoms, see now Corbet, P. Les Saints ottoniens. Sainteté dynastique, sainteté royale et sainteté féminine autour de l’an Mil Beihefte der Francia, 15 (Sigmaringen, 1986)Google Scholar. For Corbet, Ottonian royal sanctity was not primarily a tool for the promotion of particular causes or for the legitimation of the royal line, but a manifestation of the royal family’s religious prestige. It depended ultimately on the personal virtue of the saints themselves and, in most cases, on the devotion of the friends and relatives who initiated their cults. Moreover, it had virtually no discernible political impact.
24 See, for example, Vita S. Kenelmi, fol. 81r-v (a tree and two wells); Passio S. Eadwardi, pp. 8.7-11 (a well). These shrines seem to have been of long standing when the lives were written, and sacred landmarks of this type seem to have been focal points for popular participation in the cults (see Smith, J. M. H. ‘Oral and written: saints, miracles, and relics in Brittany, c.850-1250’, Speculum, 65 (1990), esp. pp. 326, 338)Google Scholar. For the currently unfashionable view that these cults were manifestations of a popular yearning for royal saints arising from Germanic paganism, see Chaney, W. A The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: the Transition from Paganism to Christianity (Manchester, 1970), pp. 77–84;Google Scholar Hoffmann, E. Die heiligen KS nige hei den Angelsachsen und den skandinavischen Võlkern, Kònigheiliger und Kònighaus Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte Schleswig-Holsteins, 69 (Neumiinster, 1975), pp. 16–58 Google Scholar.
25 Kenelm’s cult fell into the hands of the reformed monks when Winchcombe Abbey was refounded by Benedictine monks from Ramsey Abbey in about 970 (see Byrhtferth, Vita S. Oswaldi, p. 435). The relics of Wigstan were translated to Evesham in the reign of Cnut (1017-35) (see Vita S. Wistani, pp. 325–6, 331–2), and those of ^thelberht and ¿thelred to Ramsey in 978×992. See Translatio Martyrum Ethelredi atque Ethelhricti (BHL 2642), in Rollason, Mildrelh Legend, pp. 102–4. For the dating of this event, see Rollason, ‘Murdered royal saints’, p. 18, n. 90.
26 See Sawyer, P. H. Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated Handlist and Bibliography (London, 1968), nos 165, 1434, 1436 Google Scholar. See further Sims-Williams, P. Religion and Literature in Western England, 600–800 (Cambridge, 1990), p. 166, n. 107; Levison, England and the Continent, p. 252CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
27 Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters, no. 1436. This document is part of a series concerned with a dispute between Archbishop Wulfred of Canterbury (805-32) and Cwenthryth as abbess of Minster-in-Thanet. See further, Brooks, N. The Early History of the Church at Canterbury, Christ Church from 597 to 1066 (Leicester, 1984), pp. 132–42, 176–206 Google Scholar.
28 Byrhtferth, Vita S. Osu>aldi, p. 449.
29 Passio S. Eadwardi, pp. 4–5. Other texts of this date make the same accusation. See, for example, Osbern, Vita S. Dunstani, ed. Srubbs, W. Memorials of St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, RS, 63 (London, 1874), p. 115 Google Scholar. Moreover, in the mid-twelfth-century Liber Eliensis, 11.56 (pp. 127–8) the killing of Abbot Brihtnoth of Ely by a secret method is added to her misdeeds. See further, K. Sisam, ‘A secret murder’, Medium Aevum, 22 (1953), p.24.
30 For this topos in the hagiography of Saints Edith and Wulfthrydi, see Ridyard, Royal Saints, pp. 83–9; Millinger, S., ‘Humility and Power: Anglo-Saxon Nuns in Anglo-Norman Hagio graphy’, in Nichols, J. A and Shank, L. T. eds, Medieval Religious Women—Cisterican Studies, 71, 2 vols (Kalamazoo, 1984), 1, pp. 117–19 Google Scholar.
31 See, for example, Vita S. Wistani, p.328 Lectiones S. Kenelmi, fols 45V, 46r.
32 Byrhtferth, Passio SS. Ethelbertiataue Ethelredi section 2 (pp. 4–5).
33 The emphasis on youth is also likely to have been influenced by the biblical legend of the Holy Innocents but textual allusions to the biblical story or to the principal Latin homilies for their feast are entirely lacking in the Lives. The question of the insular legends’ debt to earlier boy-martyr legends (especially the Legend of St Just) and medieval ideas about infant innocenza is discussed in detail in my forthcoming study, The Idea of Innocent Martyrdom in Earlier Medieval England.
34 For early medieval monastic notions of virginity and their allegiance to concepts of pre-lapsarian and childlike innocence and simplicitas, see further Bugge, J. Virginitas: an Essay in the History of a Medieval Ideal — International Archives of the History of Ideas, ser. minor, 17 (The Hague, 1975), pp. 35–41 Google Scholar.
35 Honorius Augustodunensis, Gemma animae, i.195 (quoting Matt. 18.3) (PL 172, col. 603CD).
36 de Jong, M. ‘Growing up in a Carolingian monastery: Magister Hildemar and his oblates”, jMedH, 9 (1983), esp. pp. 105–6 Google Scholar; Riché, P. Education et culture dans l’occident barbare, VIe-VIIIe siècles(Paris, 1962), pp. 499–508;Google Scholar ‘L’enfant dans le société monastique au XIIe siècle’, in Louis, R. et al., eds, Pierre Abélard—Pierre le Vénérable (Paris, 1975), pp. 689–701 Google Scholar.
37 Quinn, P. A. Better than the Sons of Kings: Boys and Monks in the Early Middle Ages (New York, 1989), pp. 156–74 Google Scholar; De Jong, ‘Magister Hildemar and his oblates’, esp. pp. 111–12.
38 Knowles, D. ed., The Constitutions of Lanfrane (London, 1951), pp. 3 Google Scholar, 5, 7, 21, 28, 31, 73, 112, 115–16, and esp. 117–18. See also Symons, T. ed., Regularis Concordia (London, 1953), pp. xli, 7–8 Google Scholar.
39 London, BL, MS Stowe 944, fols 21–2. See Brooke, C. N. L. The Monastic World 1000–1300 (New York, 1974), p. 88 Google Scholar.
40 Homosexual practices seem to have been a significant problem in eleventh-century English monasteries. Witness, for example, the alarm which broke out at Christ Church, Canterbury, when a monk threatened to expose widespread homosexual practices in the monastery and to name one of Archbishop Lanfranc’s favourites. Osbern, ‘Miracula S. Dunstani’, in Memorials of St. Dunstan, pp. 144–53. See also Herbert de Losinga’s letter to Norman the Ostiary (ed. Anstruther, R. Epistolae Herberti de Losinga, Osberti de Clara, et Elmeri Prions Cantuarensis (Brussels, 1846), no. 6, pp. 7–13)Google Scholar.
41 Not only is the manuscript from Worcester ( James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1911–12), 2, pp. 199–204;Google Scholar Ker, N. R. Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), pp. 108—10)Google Scholar, but its version of Kenelm’s life was the one used by John of Worcester ( Thorpe, B. ed., Florentii Wigomiensis Monachi Chronicon ex Chronicis, 2 vols (London, 1848-9), 1, p. 65)Google Scholar.
42 Darlington, R. R ed., The Vita Wulfstani of William of Malmesbury Camden 3rd ser., 40 (London, 1928), iii. 8 (p. 50)Google Scholar. Note also the passages describing Wulfstan’s special attention to books which commended chastity. See, for example, ibid., i.5, iii.6, iii.12.
43 The youth of the martyrs seems to have been deliberately emphasized, Æthelberht, for example, is said to have been a fourteen-year-old (Passio S. Mthelberti, vii (p. 239)), and Kenelm a seven-year-old (Vita S. Kenelmi, fols 80v, 81r). Both of these ages were derived from the popular scheme widely known through Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum she Originum Libri XX, ed. Lindsay, W. M. (Oxford, 1911)Google Scholar, ix.19 and v.38. In this scheme, seven is the entry point into pueritia, a period of purity when one cannot yet have offspring; while fourteen is the entry point into aâolescenlia, the age at which men become old enough to get married and engage in sexual intercourse. See further, Burrow, J. A. The Ages of Man: a Study in Medieval Writing and Thought (Oxford, 1988), pp. 82–3 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
44 See Bynum, C. W. Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1982), pp. 95–102;Google Scholar Robertson, D. ‘The inimitable saints’, Romance Philology,42 (1988-9), pp. 435–6 Google Scholar.
45 See, for example, Abbo of Fleury, Passio S. Eadmundi, ed. Winterbottom, M. Three Lives of English Saints(Toronto, 1972), xvii. 16–28 (p. 87)Google Scholar.
46 Anglo-Saxon Clironicle(D), s.a.1055. There is no evidence for the use of a rule (such as those associated with Chrodegangof Metz), or for a ‘reform’ of the chapter in the eleventh or twelfth century. See further, Barrow, F. The English Church 1000–1066: a History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church, 2nd edn (London and New York, 1979), pp. 217–18,Google Scholar against Bannister, A. T. The Cathedral Church of Hereford: its History and Constitution (London, 1924), pp. 22–5 Google Scholar.
47 See Barrow, J. ‘Hereford bishops and married clergy, ci 120–1240’, HR, 60 (1987), pp. 2–4;Google Scholar Morey, A. and Brooke, C. N. L. Gilbert Foliot and his Letters (Cambridge, 1965), 191–9, 269—70.Google Scholar
48 See, for example, the Lotharingian Bishop Robert (1079–95). His learning in the quadrivium and the abacus is well attested. See William of Malmesbury, De gestís pontifìcum Anglorum libri quinque, ed. Hamilton, N. E. S. A. RS, 52 (London, 1870), pp. 300–3 Google Scholar.
49 See Barrow, ‘Hereford bishops and married clergy’, pp. 1–8.
50 Passio S. Ethelberti, iii (pp. 237–8).
51 Passio S. Ethelberti, viii (p. 240). According to the Passio, she became an anchorite in the Fens.
52 Vita regis et martyris Æthelberti (BHL 2628), ed. James, Two Lives’, pp. 222–36. See further, Bartlett, R. ‘Rewriting Saints’ Lives: the case of Gerald of Wales’, Speculum,58 (1983), esp. pp. 602–3 Google Scholar. Gerald was using the expansion of the Passio S. ethelberti (BHL 2627) which Obsert of Clare wrote in the mid-twelfth century.
53 On saints’ cults, especially cults of monastic founders, as instruments of communal continuity, see esp. Rousseau, P. Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth Century Egypt (Berkeley, 1985), ch. 9Google Scholar.
