¹ For a description of the manuscript, see Ker, N. R., A Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), no. 18 (the Vincent Passion is item 23)Google Scholar. Its piecemeal assemblage and possible Ely provenance have been discussed by Schipper, W. in ‘A Composite Old English Homiliary from Ely: Cambr. Univ. Libr. MS Ii. 1. 33’, Trans. of the Cambridge Bibliographical Soc. 8 (1983), 285–98.Google Scholar

² For the First Series, see The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church: The First Part, containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric, ed. Thorpe, B., 2 vols. (London, 1843–1846) IGoogle Scholar, hereafter cited as CH I; for the Second Series, see Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, The Second Series. Text, ed. Godden, M., EETS ss 5 (London, 1979)Google Scholar, hereafter cited as CH II; for the Lines of Saints, see Ælfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, W.W., 2 vols., EETS os 76, 82, 94, 114 (London, 1881–1900).Google Scholar

³ Skeat, , Lives of Saints, no. xxxvii (II, 426–43)Google Scholar. Skeat's text is otherwise taken from the only complete manuscript of the Lives of Saints collection, London, British Library, Cotton Julius E. vii. For Skeat's attribution of the Vincent piece to Ælfric, see ibid. II, xviii.

⁴ Twelfth Century Homilies in MS. Bodley 343, ed. Belfour, A.O., EETS os 137 (London, 1909), no. VIIIGoogle Scholar. My edition of the account of Vincent's passion and the gospel exposition is to be published in a forthcoming EETS volume.

⁵ See Ker, Catalogue, no. 310, for a full description of the manuscript (the exposition of John XII.24–6 is item 61).

⁶ ‘The Chronology of Ælfric's works’, The Anglo-Saxons: Studies in Some Aspects of their History and Culture presented to Bruce Dickins, ed. Clemoes, P. A. M. (London, 1959), pp. 212–47Google Scholar, at 236. Clemoes's argument is endorsed by Pope, J. C. in Homilies of Ælfric: a Supplementary Collection, 2 vols., EETS os 259–60 (London, 1967–1968) I, 140.Google Scholar

⁷ Twelfth Century Homilies, p. 76, lines 12–13: ‘as Vincent did, of whom we told you before’. Unless otherwise stated, translations are my own.

⁸ Only the passio section is included from Ælfric's texts for Paul (CH I, no. xxvii), Peter and Paul (CH I, no. xxvi), Andrew (CH I, no. xxxviii) and Matthew (CH II, no. xxxii). See Ker, Catalogue, no. 18, items 7, 9, 10 and 16.

⁹ CH II, p. 2: ‘of those whom the English nation honour with feast days’.

¹⁰ Skeat, Lives of Saints, p. 4, lines 41–5: ‘You know, my dear sir, that we translated in those two former books the passions and lives of the saints whom the English nation honours with feast days. Now we are pleased to assemble this book concerning the passions and lives of the saints whom monks honour amongst themselves in their services’.

¹¹ Sermo cclxxvi (PL 38, col. 1257): ‘Is there any region or province today, within the compass of either the Roman Empire or the name of Christianity, which does not celebrate with joy the birth of Vincent?’

¹² ‘Saint Vincent de Saragosse’, Revue d'histoire de l'église de France 13 (1927), 307–58Google Scholar, at 308–9. An account of the various places in which churches were dedicated to Vincent is provided by de Waal, A., ‘Zum Kult des hl. Vinzenz von Saragossa’, Römische Quartalschrift für die christliche Alterthumskunde und für Kirchengeschichte 21 (1907), 135–8.Google Scholar

¹³ The work by Prudentius is Peristephanon V, CCSL 126, pp. 294–313. The sermons by Augustine are identified amongst other later sermons by B. de Gaiffier, ‘Sermons latins en l'honneur de S. Vincent antérieurs au X^e siècle’, AB 67 (1949), 267–86. Four of the sermons are in PL 38, cols. 1252–68; one is in PL 38, cols. 33–52; the last is in Sancti Aurelii Augustini, Hipponensis Episcopi, Operum Supplementum I, ed. Caillau, A.B. (Paris, 1836), pp. 67–8.Google Scholar

¹⁴ See Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina Antiquae et Mediae Aetatis, ed. Socii Bollandiani, 2 vols. (Brussels, 1898–1901, with supplements 1911, and, ed. H. Fros, 1986), hereafter cited as BHL; further bibliography is to be found in this work. For the passio amplissima (BHL 8627–33), see Acta Sanctorum, ed. J. Bolland, G. Henschen et al. (Antwerp, 1643–), Jan., II, 394–8, hereafter cited as Acta SS. The passio brevior (BHL 8638) and the. passio fusior (BHL 8639) are printed in AB 1 (1882), 260–2 and 263–70 respectively. The names distinguishing the three versions were assigned by de Lacger, who also offers tentative dates for each; see ‘Saint Vincent de Saragosse’, pp. 325–7.

¹⁵ Acta SS, Jan., II, 397: ‘(it) lies at rest under the sacred altar outside the walls of the same city of Valencia’. The passio brevior and passio fusior do not designate a place for the burial of the body.

¹⁶ ‘Saint Vincent de Saragosse’, pp. 328–30.

¹⁷ ibid. pp. 331–2.

¹⁸ ibid. p. 333.

¹⁹ ‘Relic-cults as an Instrument of Royal Policy c. 900–1050’, ASE 15 (1986), 91–103, at 92.

²⁰ On Athelstan's relic-hunting, see J.A. Robinson, The Times of St. Dunstan (Oxford, 1923), pp. 71–80, and Rollason, ‘Relic-cults’. Evidence of his interest in manuscripts as well as relics is discussed by S. Keynes in ‘King Athelstan's Books’, Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 143–201. The Old English Exeter relic-list is printed by M. Förster, Zur Geschichte der Keliquienkultus in Altengland, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Abt., 8 (Munich, 1943); Vincent's relics are mentioned on p. 73.

²¹ ‘Recherches sur le légendier romain’, AB 51 (1933), 34–98, at 49–50.

²² ibid. pp. 55–6.

²³ The connection between the two is discussed further by P. F. de' Cavalieri, ‘A proposito della Passio S. Vincentii Levitae’, Studi e Testi 65 (Vatican City, 1935), 115–25.

²⁴ The Shape of the Liturgy, 2nd ed. (London, 1945), p. 368.

²⁵ See M. Lapidge, ‘Litanies of the Saints in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: a Preliminary List’, Scriptorium 40 (1986), 264–77. Of the litanies listed by Lapidge, the following contain invocations to both Laurence and Vincent: nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 [separated by one saint], 6, 8 [separated by one saint], 9, 12 [separated by one saint], 13, 16, 18, 19, 21 [separated by one saint], 22, 23 [widely separated], 24 [widely separated], 29 [widely separated], 32, 33, 34, 36, 37 [widely separated], 38 [separated], 39, 40, 42 [separated by one saint], 44 [widely separated] and 45. The following litanies contain an invocation to Laurence, but none to Vincent: 4, 7, 10, 11, 26, 28, 30 and 31. I am grateful to Dr M. Lapidge for help with this reference.

²⁶ See de Lacger, ‘Saint Vincent de Saragosse’, pp. 332–3.

²⁷ ‘Sermons latins’, p. 268.

²⁸ The contents of Paul the Deacon's homiliary were first described by F. Wiegand, Das Homiliarium Karls des Grossen auf seine ursprüngliche Gestalt hin untersucht, Studien zur Geschichte der Theologie und der Kirche 1 (Leipzig, 1897); they are also listed, with corrections and additions, by R. Grégoire, Les homéliaires du moyen âge: Inventaire et analyse des manuscrits, Rerum Ecclesiasticarum Documenta, Series Maior, Fontes 6 (Vatican City, 1966), 71–114. The Carolingian homiliaries are examined by H. Barré, Les Homéliaires carolingiens de l'école d' Auxerre, Studi e Testi 225 (Vatican City, 1962). Barré's use of the term ‘Carolingian’ is questioned by M. Clayton, ‘Homiliaries and Preaching in Anglo-Saxon England’, Perilia 4 (1985), 207–42, at 211.

²⁹ Sermo xlii (PL 95, col. 1490). Augustine's commentary is In Ioannis euangelium tractatus, li. 9–12, CCSL 36, 442–5.

³⁰ Barré, Homéliaires carolingiens, p. 156 (no. 34); the whole homily is printed in PL 118, cols. 763–5.

³¹ PL 102, cols. 437–9.

³² The Missal of the New Minster Winchester, ed. Turner, D.H., HBS 93 (1962), 64, 140 and 197Google Scholar. According to its editor, the manuscript, Le Havre, Bibliothèque Municipale, 330, was written for the New Minster, Winchester. Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: a List of Surviving Books, 2nd ed., R. Hist. Soc. Guides and Handbooks, no. 3 (London, 1964), 200Google Scholar, ascribes it to the Old Minster, Winchester, on litúrgical evidence.

³³ The Sarum Missal, ed. Legg, J. Wickham (Oxford, 1916), pp. 242 (Vincent)Google Scholar, 304–5 (Laurence) and 360 (a martyr). Legg dates the work between 1150 and 1319 (pp. v-vii).

³⁴ See Schneyer, J. B., Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für die Zeitvon 1150–1350, 9 vols. (Münster, Westfalen, 1969–1980) 1, 712 and 713 (nos. 89 and 97)Google Scholar; IV, 138–9 and 143 (nos. 200 and 258); V, 41 and 42 (nos. 86 and 90).

³⁵ See, for example, ibid. I. 485 (no. 168); II, 402 (no. 405a), 561 (no. 376); III, 347 (no. 157); IV, 34 (no. 282), 615 (no. 222); V, 545 (no. 286).

³⁶ The West Saxon Gospels, in a marginal note, assign John XII.24–6 to a different occasion again, ‘tywes dæg on þære palmwucan’ (Tuesday in the week following Palm Sunday). The usual pericope for this occasion is John XII.1–36 (not just John XII.24–6). But the West Saxon Gospels assign John XII.1–23 to the Monday after Palm Sunday. See The Gospel According to St. John in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Versions Synoptically Arranged, with Collations Exhibiting all the Readings of all the Manuscripts, ed. Skeat, W. W. (Cambridge, 1878), pp. 114 and 118.Google Scholar

³⁷ Since in his First Series homily on Laurence (CH I, no. xxix), Ælfric had restricted himself to narrative only, he was therefore free to expound John XII.24–6 in a homily on St Vincent.

³⁸ Das altenglische Martyrologium, ed. G. Kotzor, 2 vols., Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Abhandlungen, phil.-hist. Klasse, ns 88 (Munich, 1981) II, 23–4. The entry for Vincent is discussed by Cross, J. E. in ‘Saints' Lives in Old English: Latin Manuscripts and Vernacular Accounts: the Old English Martyrology’, Peritia 1 (1982), 38–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁹ Angelsächsische Homilien und Heiligenleben, ed. Assmann, B. with supplementary introduction by Clemoes, P. (Darmstadt, 1964), p. 49 (no. iv).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ English Kalendars Before A.D. 1100, ed. Wormald, F., HBS 72 (London, 1934)Google Scholar, nos. 4 and 5. The provenance and dates of the manuscripts are Wormald's unless otherwise noted.

⁴¹ Watson, A. G., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 435–1600 in Oxford Libraries, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1984) 1Google Scholar, 19, most recently confirms the date of Bodley 579 as ‘979?’.

⁴² English Kalendars, nos. 12 and 13.

⁴³ Ker, , Catalogue, p. 298Google Scholar, dates Vitellius E. xviii to s. xi^med.

⁴⁴ Gasquet, F. A. and Bishop, E., The Bosworth Psalter (London, 1908), p. 21.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ ibid. p. 30.

⁴⁶ Ker, , Catalogue, pp. 167 and 301Google Scholar. The resemblances between Vitellius E. xviii and Titus D. xxvi are also observed by Bishop, T. A. M. in English Caroline Minuscule (Oxford, 1971), p. 23 (no. 26).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Liber Vitae: Register and Martyrology of New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester, ed. de Gray Birch, W. (London and Winchester, 1892), pp. 147 and 149Google Scholar: ‘forearm of St Vincent, deacon and martyr’, ‘relics of St Vincent’.

⁴⁸ Ed. Bell, A., Anglo-Norman Text Soc, nos. 14–16 (Oxford, 1960), 129, lines 4071–5Google Scholar. I have not been able to find the source for this claim. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle enters Æthelred's coronation twice, once in 978 and once at Kingston (‘æt Cinges tune’) in 979; see Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. Plummer, C., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1892–1899) I, 122Google Scholar. The ‘Epistola Adelardi’ in Memorials of Saint Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. Stubbs, W., RS (London, 1874), p. 61Google Scholar, notes that both Edward and Æthelred were crowned and anointed by Dunstan, but gives no further details.

⁴⁹ The Early History of Glastonbury: an Edition, Translation and Study of William of Malmesbury's ‘De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie’, ed. Scott, J. (Woodbridge, 1981), p. 130Google Scholar: ‘covered with gold and silver and becomingly decorated with ivory images, which contained the relics of St Vincent and the head of St Apollinaris’ (trans. Scott, p. 131).

⁵⁰ ibid. p. 134.

⁵¹ William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Regum Anglorum, ed. Stubbs, W., 2 vols., RS (London, 1887–1889) I, 181.Google Scholar

⁵² The Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey: an Edition, Translation and Study of John of Glastonbury's ‘Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie’, ed. Carley, J.P. (Woodbridge, 1985), p. 18Google Scholar: ‘Also there are…most of the relics of St Vincent, archdeacon and martyr, which pious King Edgar sought out’ (trans. D. Townsend, ibid. p. 19). For information on the date and sources of the Chronicle, see the introduction to this edition.

⁵³ The manuscript was printed by T. Hearne as the 2nd vol. of his ed. of the Chronicle. See Johannis Glastoniensis Chronica sive Historia de Rebus Glastoniensibus, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1726) II, 446Google Scholar: ‘In the reliquary of the apostles … are kept the relics of the blessed martyr Vincent, namely one thigh-bone, one rib, four pieces from the forearms and shin-bones, [and] the seventh bone [which] is externally larger’. I am grateful to Dr R. Sharpe of the Medieval Latin Dictionary and Dr T.D. Hobbs of Trinity College Library, Cambridge, for their helpful suggestions on the translation of this obscure passage.

⁵⁴ A full catalogue of the English religious houses whose relic-lists include Vincent's relics is given by I.G. Thomas, ‘The Cult of Saints’ Relics in Medieval England’ (unpubl. PhD dissertation, London Univ., 1974), p. 470. For Peterborough, see The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, ed. Mellows, W.T. (Oxford, 1949), pp. 54 and 56Google Scholar; for Exeter, see Förster, , Zur Geschichte, p. 73.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ ‘Relic-cults’, p. 92.

⁵⁶ Barlow, F., Dexter, K.M., Erskine, A.M., Lloyd, L. J., Leofric of Exeter (Exeter, 1972), p. 12.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ The association of Vincent with Abingdon has been discussed also by Thacker, A., ‘Æthelwold and Abingdon’, in Bishop Æthelwold: his Career and Influence, ed. Yorke, B. (Woodbridge, 1988), pp. 43–64, at 60–1.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson, J., 2 vols., RS (London, 1858)Google Scholar, excluding Appendices; hereafter cited as CMA. The two manuscripts are London, BL, Cotton Claudius C. ix (s. xii^ex), and London, BL, Cotton Claudius B. vi (s. xiii^ex); the text in the edition is mainly from the latter. The dates are those assigned by Ker in Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, p. 3Google Scholar. Stenton, F.M., The Early History of the Abbey of Abingdon (Reading, 1913), pp. 4–6Google Scholar, also notes that the editor conflates a twelfth-century account with a thirteenth-century one.

⁵⁹ Appendix II in Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson II, 268–95; hereafter cited as AA. The manuscript, London, BL, Cotton Vitellius A. xiii, is dated s. xiiiⁱⁿ by Ker, , Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, p. 3.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ CMA I,92: ‘That woman Ælfida was buried in the chapel which she had built in honour of St Vincent.’

⁶¹ The issue of the chapel's site is raised by Biddle, M., Lambrick, G. and Myres, J.N.L., in ‘The Early History of Abingdon, Berkshire, and its Abbey’, Medieval Archaeology 12 (1968), 26–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Lambrick takes the view that the chapel was at Culham, noting that Culham Church ‘constituted what was virtually a “peculiar” of Abingdon Abbey’ (p. 47, n. 66). Biddle, however, concludes from the dedication to St Vincent that the chapel was an Abingdon building (p. 64, n. 157).

⁶² CMA II, 156: ‘The forearm and thigh-bone of St Vincent, and part of the shoulder and his rib.’

⁶³ CMA II, 48: ‘whose [Vincent's] sacred relics were held in the greatest esteem in this monastery in the time of King Edgar, who himself sought them out’.

⁶⁴ AA 280: ‘In whose time the monks of Abingdon stole the relics of St Vincent and the head of St Apollinaris and many other relics from the monks of Glastonbury.’

⁶⁵ ‘Furta Sacra’: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton, 1978), pp. 132–57.Google Scholar See also Sox, D., Relics and Shrines (London, 1985), pp. 41–60.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Early History, pp. 1–2.

⁶⁷ ‘The Cult of Saints' Relics’, p. 151.

⁶⁸ CMA I, 433–4, 443; II, 214; AA 291.

⁶⁹ A A 287. In a further document outlining arrangements for the provision of wine, Vincent's feast has been elevated with an octave; see Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson, II, 315.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Die Heiligen Englands, ed. Liebermann, F. (Hannover, 1889).Google Scholar

⁷¹ ‘Lists of Saints' Resting-places in Anglo-Saxon England’, ASE 7 (1978), 61–93, at 82.Google Scholar

⁷² Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 201 (Ker, Catalogue, no. 49b, arts. 54–5), and London, BL, Stowe 944 (Ker, Catalogue, no. 274, art. (d)); the latter is printed by Birch, , Liber Vitae, pp. 87–96.Google Scholar

⁷³ Die Heiligen Englands, p. xiii.

⁷⁴ ibid. p. 15: ‘Then St. Vincent the martyr lies at Abingdon.’

⁷⁵ The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, whilst claiming relics of Vincent for Peterborough, includes also an amplified version of the Old English tract on the resting-places of the saints which assigns Vincent to Abingdon; see Mellows, p. 59.

⁷⁶ ‘Saints' Lives in Old English: Latin Manuscripts and Vernacular Accounts: Ælfric’, Peritia 1 (1982), 17–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁷ The Cotton-Corpus vita of Vincent is ed. Grau, A. Fábrega in Pasionario Hispanico II, Monumenta Hispaniae sacra, serie Liturgica 6 (Madrid, 1955), 187–96.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ This epilogue is not found in the vita proper as printed by Fábrega Grau, but is provided by the manuscripts of the Cotton-Corpus collection; see Zettel, ‘Saints' Lives in Old English’, p.30.

⁷⁹ London, BL, Cotton Nero E. i, part 1, 121v: ‘that his relics are honoured with marvellous reverence not only in Spain but also in the provinces of Gaul’. The passage is printed in full by Zettel in ‘Saints’ Lives in Old English', pp. 30–1.

⁸⁰ Skeat, Lives of Saints II, no. xxxvii, lines 278–9: ‘and his holy bones were widely scattered, and are revered everywhere with great devotion’. Elsewhere, for example in his Life of St Oswald, Ælfric adds the current resting-place of the bones (no. xxvi, lines 283–5).

⁸¹ ‘Relic-cults’, p. 101.

⁸² Three Lives of English Saints, ed. Winterbottom, M., Toronto Medieval Latin Texts (Toronto, 1972), p. 20Google Scholar: ‘it was then abandoned and neglected, consisting of cheap buildings and possessing only forty hides’.

⁸³ See Stenton, F.M., Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1971), p. 451.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Three Lives, p. 23; Lives of Saints I, no. xxi, lines 27–8 (‘driven out by Bishop Æthelwold because of their vices’), see also lines 83–5.

⁸⁵ Clemoes, ‘Chronology’, pp. 244–5.

⁸⁶ ‘The Shrines of Saints in Later Anglo-Saxon England: Distribution and Significance’, The Anglo-Saxon Church: Papers on History, Architecture, and Archaeology in Honour of Dr H.M. Taylor, ed. L. Butler, A. S. and Morris, R. K., CBA Research Report 60 (London, 1986), 32–43, at 38.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Knowles, D., The Monastic Order in England, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1963), p. 542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸⁸ For a discussion of the context in which Ælfric's homilies might have been preached, see Gatch, M. McC., Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England: Ælfric and Wulfstan (Toronto, 1977), pp. 40–59Google Scholar, and Clayton, ‘Homiliaries and Preaching’.

⁸⁹ Twelfth Century Homilies, p. 74, lines 19–22.

⁹⁰ Twelfth Century Homilies, p. 76, lines 14–17: ‘Men serve Christ in many ways: some in serving him at appointed times, some in mass service and in many prayers, some live in purity for love of Christ, some have given up their lives in death for love of him, some give alms in praise of their Lord.’ Ælfric's source for his exposition of John XII.24–6 is, as far as I can identify it, Alcuin's Commentaria in S. Ioannis Evangelium (PL 100, cols. 911–13). At this point, Ælfric has omitted Alcuin's reference to preaching, and added three items: divine service at appointed times, mass and prayers, and living in purity. These seem to represent a shift of emphasis towards the monastic life.

⁹¹ See, for example, Assmann I, p. 6; CH II, p. 2 (Latin Ammonitio); Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics in altenglischer und lateinischer Fassung, ed. Fehr, B. with supplementary introduction by Clemoes, P. (Darmstadt, 1966)Google Scholar, Brief I, p. 18, lines 1–6.

⁹² I should like to thank Dr Malcolm Godden for his many valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article.