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The Saxons within Carolingian
Christendom: post-conquest
identity in the translationes of
Vitus, Pusinna and Liborius
Eric Shuler
a
a
University of Notre Dame, Medieval Institute , 715
Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
46556, USA
Published online: 03 Jan 2012.
To cite this article: Eric Shuler (2010) The Saxons within Carolingian Christendom: post-
conquest identity in the translationes of Vitus, Pusinna and Liborius, Journal of Medieval
History, 36:1, 39-54, DOI:
10.1016/j.jmedhist.2009.10.002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmedhist.2009.10.002
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The Saxons within Carolingian Christendom: post-conquest
identity in the translationes of Vitus, Pusinna and Liborius
Eric Shuler
University of Notre Dame, Medieval Institute, 715 Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
Keywords:
Saxony
Carolingian
Translation
Christianisation
Relics
Identity
Corvey
a b s t r a c t
The Franks incorporated Saxony into the Carolingian empire
through a long, brutal struggle coupled with forced conversion.
When Saxons themselves began to write a few decades afterwards,
they had to make sense of this history and of their role and
identity in their contemporary Carolingian world. In contrast to the
portrayal of Saxons in writers such as Einhard and Rudolf, three
ninth-century Saxon accounts of relic translations d those of
Vitus, Pusinna and Liborius d reinterpreted history to claim
a place for the Saxons as a distinct group equal to the Franks within
the populus Christianus under the Carolingian monarchs. As a key
part of their literary strategies, these authors attempted to salvage
from the story of their defeat and forced Christianisation an
account of God’s sovereignty, native agency and virtue (especially
fidelity) as a foundational element of Saxon identity. These texts
prefigure the debates about post-conquest Saxon identity which
would underlay the later and better-known Ottonian triumphal
self-conceptions. Moreover, the concerns of these authors led
them to remarkable hagiographical innovations in grappling with
paganism, conversion, miracles, social class and faith.
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doi:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2009.10.002
Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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Charlemagne’s conquest and conversion of the Saxons was a protracted, bloody affair. Only 33 years of
incessant warfare (772–804) subdued them and created a nominally Christian province.
Reflecting
on those events in his biography of the conqueror, Einhard wrote that the defeated Saxons ‘were joined
to the Franks and made one people with them’.
As Timothy Reuter observed, ‘it is not clear, inci-
dentally, that the Saxons agreed. [.] Tenth-century Saxon writers often also showed considerable
hostility to the Franks.’
That is hardly surprising in light of the tenacious Saxon resistance, which
resulted in massive forced deportations and draconian laws before the Franks succeeded in crushing or
co-opting the Saxon leadership.
Debates concerning the status of Saxons and Franks began long before the tenth century. This article
examines how, in comparison with non-Saxon sources like Rudolf of Fulda’s Translatio sancti Alexandri, the
Saxon authors of the accounts of the translations of the relics of Saints Vitus, Pusinna and Liborius (written
between 836 and 909) used history, theology and hagiographical topoi to balance their new Christianity
and loyalty to the Carolingians with pride in their ancestry and political ambition. From the story of their
defeat and forced Christianisation, these authors attempted to salvage ideas of God’s sovereignty, native
agency and virtue (especially fidelity) as foundations for defining Saxon identity and to refute negative
stereotypes. The areas which generated these translationes d Saxony’s relatively prosperous southern
region bordering other Carolingian peoples d made questions of identity especially acute. The authors
wrote not only to promote the relics but also to address contemporary concerns. By articulating a positive
identity, they constructed narratives to help the Saxon elites navigate their role in the political calculus of
the Carolingian rulers. These illustrated both possibilities for and limits to the Carolingian empire’s
absorption of different ethnic groups. Moreover, the concerns of these authors led them to remarkable
hagiographical innovations in grappling with paganism, conversion, miracles, social class and faith.
Scholarship has generally concentrated on Saxon self-conceptions during Charlemagne’s conquest
or in the tenth century, but said little about the century in between. Before and during that conquest,
the idea of a unified Saxon people was largely a fiction. Instead, regional groupings dominated within
‘Saxony’.
Matthias Becher has suggested that Saxon identity began to acquire political force in the
regnum Francorum et Saxonum of Louis the Younger (876–82), but this new process of ethnogenesis did
not flower without royal and aristocratic interaction in the mid-tenth century (his primary interest).
1
A. Lampen, ‘Sachsenkriege, sa¨chsischer Widerstand und Kooperation’, in: Kunst und Kultur de Karolingerzeit. Karl der Große
und Papst Leo III in Paderborn, ed. C. Stiegemann and M. Wemhoff (Mainz, 1999), 264–72; R. Collins, Charlemagne (Toronto,
1998), 43–57; M. Springer, Die Sachsen (Stuttgart, 2004), 166–261. The following abbreviations are used throughout this article:
AASS: Acta sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, 68 vols (Antwerp, Brussels and Paris, 1643–1940; partially revised Paris,
1863–70); MGH: Monumenta Germaniae Historica; SRG: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi;
PL: Patrologia Latina, ed. J-P. Migne, 221 vols (Paris, 1844–64); ARF: Annales regni Francorum 741–829 qui dicuntur Annales
Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi, ed. F. Kurze (MGH SRG 6, Hanover, 1895); TAlex.: Rudolf of Fulda and Meginhart, Translatio
sancti Alexandri, ed. B. Krusch, in his ‘Die U
¨ bertragung des H. Alexander von Rom nach Wildeshausen durch den Enkel
Widukinds 851’, Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Go
¨ttinger, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, 2:13 (1933),
405–36; TLib.: Translatio sancti Liborii, ed. V. de Vry, in his Liborius: Bru
¨ckenbauer Europas (Paderborn, 1997), 187–221; TPus.:
Translatio sanctae Pusinnae, ed. D. Papebroch (AASS Apr. 3), 170–3; TViti: Vitustranslation d Translatio sancti Viti martyris, ed.
I. Schmale-Ott (Mu¨nster, 1979); Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM: W. Wattenbach, W. Levison and H. Lo¨we, Deutschlands Geschichts-
quellen im Mittelalter, vol. 6: Die Karolinger vom Vertrag von Verdum bis zum Herrschaftsantritt der Herrscher aus dem sa
¨chsischen
Hause (Weimar, 1990).
2
‘Francis adunati unus cum eis populus efficerentur.’ Einhard, Vita Karoli magni, ed. O. Holder-Egger (MGH SRG 25, Hanover,
1911, repr. 1965), c. 7, 10.
3
T. Reuter, ‘Charlemagne and the world beyond the Rhine’, in: Charlemagne. Empire and society, ed. J. Story (Manchester,
2005), 190.
4
This partially accounts for the slow, piecemeal conquest. M. Becher, ‘‘‘Non enim habent regem idem antiqui Saxones.’’:
Verfassung und Ethnogenese in Sachsen wa¨hren des 8. Jahrhunderts’, in: Sachsen und Franken in Westfalen, ed. H. Haßler
(Studien zur Sachsenforschung 12, Oldenburg, 1999), 1–31; The continental Saxons from the migration period to the tenth century,
ed. D.H. Green and F. Siegmund (Woodbridge, 2003), especially I. Wood, ‘Beyond satraps and ostriches: political and social
structures of the Saxons in the early Carolingian period’, 271–86; Springer, Die Sachsen, esp. 131–52, 260.
5
M. Becher, Rex, Dux und Gens. Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des sa
¨chsischen Herzogtums im 9. und 10. Jahrhundert (Husum,
1996). See also R. Corradini, ‘U
¨ berlegungen zur sa¨chsischen Ethnogenese anhand der Annales Fuldenses und deren sa¨chsisch-
ottonischer Rezeption’, in: Die Suche nach den Urspru
¨ngen von der Bedeutung des fru
¨hen Mittelalters, ed. W. Pohl (Vienna, 2004),
211–31. D. Appleby, ‘Spiritual progress in Carolingian Saxony: a case from ninth-century Corvey’, Catholic Historical Review, 82
(1996), 599–613, has a different focus which results in too quick an acceptance of Frankish-Saxon harmony.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
40
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While the Saxons never emerged as an ethno-political power bloc before the Ottonians, nonetheless
ideas about a group identity and its political implications were latent under Carolingian rule. The
ninth-century Saxons laid the foundations for their descendants’ ideas, although, like them, I am
concerned first with their contemporary setting.
Group identity within the Carolingian realm had to balance diverse regional loyalties with the
benefits of imperial unity. The monarch, the triumphant Franks and Christianity all offered possible
centres for that unity.
The Frankish annals, with their ‘unprecedented’ focus on the unstoppable
Franks as a gens (tribe or people), created a narrative of how they ‘swallow up all other gentes who in
due course become appendages to the Franks’.
Some incorporated regions retained a local identity as,
for example, Alemani, but on a supra-regional level identified themselves as Franks.
Aquitaine and
Italy retained a degree of autonomy and distinctive regional identities.
As part of their efforts to resist
absorption, the Bretons waged a campaign through hagiographical texts and history to construct
a laudable, independent identity.
The conditions for debating Saxon identity emerged from Saxony’s conquest. The aristocracy, both
native and new, began to establish bases of power throughout the area that transcended earlier
regional divisions and so gradually helped make the new province a political reality.
Mid-ninth
century sources assumed the existence of a ‘Saxon’ people, descended from the earlier pagan Saxons,
within this coalescing region, but debate centred on two points: what traits defined Saxon identity and
what political dimensions ought Saxon identity to have in relation to the Franks?
The idea of complete political independence seems to have been effectively crushed during the period
of conquest, but that left open several answers to the second question. Saxons could quite easily be seen as
a conquered people, competent for regional duties and military recruitment, but otherwise rightly
subordinate to the powerful Frankish people. Integration, along the lines of the Alemani, offered another
plausible model in which Saxons could come to imitate the successful Franks and even identify themselves
as Franks. Saxony would still exist and its elites would be ‘Saxons’, but in the sense that an American might
also consider himself a New Yorker. The frequent mingling and marriage between the Saxon and Frankish
elites would have facilitated that course.
A third option did exist, however, one which saw Christianity
and loyalty to the Carolingian dynasty d not the Frankish people d as the bedrock of the imperial political
order. In this model, Saxon and Frankish identities were parallel and mutually exclusive affiliations of
equal importance, and the aristocracy of each people had an important role in serving crown and cross.
The three Saxon translationes here championed variations of this last option. In retelling political
and sacred history, each constructed a version of Saxon identity around which the Saxons could choose
to rally and assert themselves in the contemporary world as a separate people from the Franks, but also
as willing and worthwhile partners with them. This paper reads the texts to consider how a contem-
porary audience, especially the Saxon elites, would have heard these sources in light of this debate and
the evolving circumstances of the ninth century.
A fundamental part of their strategy revolved around answering the question of what traits defined
Saxon identity. Being Saxon had to be made to seem desirable. The recent past of intransigent paganism
6
L. von Padberg, ‘Unus populus ex diversis gentibus: Gentilismus und Einheit in fru¨heren Mittelalter’, in: Der Umgang mit dem
Fremden in der Vormoderne, ed. R.W. Keck and E. Wiersing (Cologne, 1997), 155–93, esp. 183; W. Pohl, ‘Zur Bedeutung ethnischer
Unterscheidungen in der fru¨hen Karolingerzeit’, in: Sachsen und Franken, ed. Haßler, 193–208; P. Geary, The myth of nations
(Princeton, 2002), esp. 120–55; J. Nelson, ‘The Merovingian church in Carolingian retrospective’, in: The world of Gregory of
Tours, ed. K. Mitchell and I. Wood (Leiden, 2002), 241–59; Reuter, ‘Charlemagne and the world’, 190–2; see also R. McKitterick,
Charlemagne. The formation of a European identity (Cambridge, 2008), 214–91.
7
R. McKitterick, History and memory in the Carolingian world (Cambridge, 2004), 114–15.
8
M. Innes, ‘Memory, orality and literacy in an early medieval society’, Past and Present, 158 (1998), 10–13.
9
McKitterick, Charlemagne, 101–2, 245–50; J.M.H. Smith, ‘Confronting identities: the rhetoric and reality of a Carolingian
frontier’, in: Integration und Herrschaft. Ethnische Identita
¨ten und soziale Organisation in Fru
¨hmittelalter, ed. W. Pohl and
M. Disenberger (Vienna, 2002), 177.
10
Smith, ‘Confronting identities’, 169–82.
11
C. Ehlers, Die Integration Sachsens in das fra
¨nkische Reich (751–1024) (Go¨ttingen, 2007), 153–91, 307–9; see also Becher, Rex,
110–25; H. Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen nach Sachsen im 9. Jahrhundert. U
¨ ber Kommunkation, Mobilita¨t und O¨ffentlichkeit im
Fru
¨hmittelalter (Stuttgart, 2002), 50-1.
12
Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 49–91; Ehlers, Integration, 153–91.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
41
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and resistance to Carolingian rule had generated a number of unpleasant stereotypes alongside the
embarrassment of defeat. Any attempt to articulate Saxon identity in textual culture as a plausible
political force had to refute or reinterpret those liabilities.
These questions of Saxon identity fed an ongoing debate, which was not resolved during the
period of Carolingian rule. That the Saxon elites ascribed to different viewpoints is clear, however
much the strength of each party remains ambiguous. The involvement of the lower classes can
only be glimpsed in the written evidence considered here, despite the public nature of relic
transfers.
The genre of the translatio d the account of the movement of a saint’s relics, but without his vita
d
appeared in the Frankish world as such transfers multiplied. Einhard’s account of his acquisition in
827 of the relics of Marcellinus and Peter is the paradigmatic early example.
Beyond describing how
the relics were obtained, obstacles overcome and joyful miracles performed, a translatio also described
why the relics were sought in the first place. Since all our authors agreed that Saxony’s simultaneous
subjugation to empire and Christianity formed an essential part of that explanation, the conventions of
the genre demanded some reflection on it. Once one author used the translatio to articulate Saxon
identity, others naturally followed suit.
These authors also drew deeply upon the religious possibilities of the genre. The Carolingians
sought to consolidate their wide-ranging rule through the creation of empire-wide sacred topography
(including relic translations) and ‘correct’ Christian culture.
The ritual process of translation served to
link regions and people together.
The interpretation of ritual and hence the nature of those bonds
could, however, be a locus of negotiation.
Relics moved debates about the place of Saxons in the
Frankish realm from a political discourse to a religious one in which the whole range of past and
present Christian experience had relevance. Those new terms of discussion would prove more
favourable to building ideas of Saxon dignity and equality, although only when the authors could
narrate a favourable story of Christianisation and explain their past adherence to a discredited
paganism. This held especially true when the Saxons had a clear agency in the process of obtaining the
relics.
The Translatio sancti Alexandri and the view from outside Saxony
Before the Saxons began to write, the Frankish annals and Einhard’s Vita Karoli magni engraved
a normative account of the Saxon conquest on the minds of literate Carolingians. The prodigious
distribution of the annals throughout the ninth century perpetuated their version of history.
That
narrative was quite negative about eighth-century Saxons and would prove ambivalent about their
descendants.
Unfaithfulness (perfidia or infidelitas), which carried both political and religious connotations, forms
the core characteristic of the Saxons in these Frankish texts. While a damning trait at any time, an
increasing contemporary emphasis on fidelity and oaths made it worse.
A reference to the ‘evil
custom’ of repeated uprisings encodes the palpable frustration in the annals at the difficulty of
subduing the Saxons.
The brutality to which the Franks resorted, from capital punishment for eating
13
See M. Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte und andere Quellen des Reliquienkultes (Typologie des sources du moyen aˆge
occidental 33, Turnhout, 1979), 109–12; Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 359–65.
14
Einhard, Translatio et miracula sanctorum Marcellini et Petri, ed. G. Waitz (MGH Scriptores 15:1, Hanover, 1888), 239–64;
K. Honselmann, ‘Reliquientranslationen nach Sachsen’, in: Das erste Jahrtausend, ed. V.H. Elbern (Dusseldorf, 1962), 158–93;
Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte; J. Smith, ‘Old saints, new cults: Roman relics in Carolingian Francia’, in: Early medieval Rome
and the Christian west, ed. J. Smith (Leiden, 2000), 317–40; Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen.
15
Compare I. Wood, ‘An absence of saints? Evidence for the Christianisation of Saxony’, in: Am Vorabend der Kaiserkro
¨nung, ed.
P. Godman, J. Jarnut and P. Johanek (Berlin, 2002), 343.
16
McKitterick, Charlemagne, 292–380, esp. 329–30, 378–9; see also Ehlers, Integration, 43–267, 386.
17
Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, esp. 325–49, 366–9.
18
P. Buc, The dangers of ritual (Princeton, 2001), 3–11; Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 260.
19
McKitterick, History and memory, 111–13.
20
Corradini, ‘U
¨ berlegungen’, 216.
21
‘consuetudinem malam.’ ARF a. 778, 52. Also ARF a. 784 and a. 793, 66 and 94.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
42
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meat during Lent to mass executions, bears its own witness to their bafflement.
Alcuin protested at
these harsh tactics, but even he inveighed against ‘this cursed generation of Saxons’.
The annals inadvertently highlighted the picture of intractable propensity to treachery through
their conception of conversion as an event assignable to a specific date.
What could one do with
a people that ‘converted’ and then rebelled against empire and church the following year? In reality the
process of Christianisation invariably stretched out over a long period of instruction and cultural
exchange both before and after baptism.
Missionaries had some understanding of that fact, but the
historical texts and harsh Carolingian policies made no allowance for a people still oscillating between
paganism and Christianity.
A general disdain for pagans compounded this Frankish antipathy. Violent and bestial pagans march
through Carolingian hagiography.
Even Alcuin’s Vita Willibrordi, which downplays martyrdom,
mentions the death of at least one missionary and the threat of further violence.
Still, missionaries
often subscribed to a more nuanced view of their potential converts.
The Saxons entered the Carolingian realm in a poor light, but not without some positive attributes.
The Frankish warrior elite must have had some grudging respect for the sheer doggedness of the Saxon
resistance. Years later Nithard (himself a soldier) would write, ‘From the beginning, the Saxons have
often proved themselves by many examples to be both noble and extremely warlike.’
Shared military
service brought Franks and Saxons together as early as 782.
Vile though the pagan Saxons may have been in Frankish eyes, their Christian descendants were
better. Einhard sketches a history of habitual violence and prevarication, yet his famous concluding
remark that the Saxons were made one people with the Franks implies that this wicked past was
over.
Charlemagne’s claim to the imperial crown was in part based on the number of peoples united
in loyalty to him, including the Saxons.
That did not mean equality. Hrabanus Maurus at Fulda
thought that the Frankish role in ‘paternally’ converting the Saxons so self-evidently implied
continuing superiority even over Christian Saxons that it formed a useful argument against the upstart
monk Gottschalk.
Conquest remained an essential part of this view of Saxon identity.
22
ARF, a. 782, 62; Capitulatio de partibus Saxonia, ed. C. von Schwerin (MGH Fontes iuris Germanici antiqui 4, Hanover, 1918),
c. 4, 37. See also B. Effros, ‘De partibus Saxoniae and the regulation of mortuary custom: a Carolingian campaign of Christian-
isation or the suppression of Saxon identity?’, Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, 75 (1997), 267–86; compare Y. Hen,
‘Charlemagne’s jihad’, Viator, 37 (2005), 33–51.
23
‘maledicta generatione Saxonum.’ Alcuin, Epistolae, ed. E. Du¨mmler (MGH Epistolae 4, Berlin, 1895), ep. 185, 309; similarly
ep. 110 and 177, 157 and 293.
24
Annales sancti Amandi, ed. G.H. Pertz (MGH Scriptores 1, Hanover 1826), a. 776 and 785, 12; Annales Laureshamenses, ed.
Pertz (MGH Scriptores 1), a. 776, 30; ARF, a. 776, 47.
25
A. Nock, Conversion. The old and new in religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo (Oxford, 1933); K. Morrison,
Understanding conversion (Charlottesville, 1992); Varieties of religious conversion in the middle ages, ed. J. Muldoon (Gainesville,
1997), esp. 1–10; C. Cusack, The rise of Christianity in northern Europe, 300–1000 (London, 1998), 1–29.
26
Eigil, Vita Sturmi, ed. G.H. Pertz (MGH Scriptores 2, Hanover, 1827), c. 7 and c. 23, 369, 376; L. von Padberg, ‘Zum Sachsenbild
in hagiographischen Quellen’, in: Sachsen und Franken, ed. Haßler, 180–3.
27
Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi c. 5, 11, 14, ed. W. Levison (MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 7, Hanover, 1920), 120, 125–6, 128;
I. Wood, The missionary life. Saints and the evangelization of Europe 400–1050 (Harlow, 2000), 86–7. See also R. Sullivan, ‘The
Carolingian missionary and the pagan’, Speculum, 28 (1953), 705–40, esp. 734–6; I. Wood, ‘Pagans and holy men 600–800’, in:
Irland und die Christenheit, ed. P. Nı´ Chatha´in and M. Richter (Stuttgart, 1987), 347–61.
28
S. Bonifatii et Lulli Epistolae, ed. M. Tangl (MGH Epistolae selectae 1, Berlin 1916), ep. 23 and 46, 38–41 and 74–5; Alcuin,
Epistolae, ep. 110, 157–9; Ratramnus, Epistolae variorum, ed. E. Du¨mmler (MGH Epistolae 6, Berlin, 1925), ep. 12, 155–7; Wood,
Missionary life, esp. 83–6; but see also L. von Padberg, Mission und Christianisierung. Formen und Folgen bei Angelsachsen und
Franken im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1995), 355–6.
29
‘Qui ab initio tam nobiles quam et ad bella promptissimi multis indiciis persepe claruerunt.’ Nithard, Historia, IV.2, 120;
trans. B.W. Scholz, Carolingian chronicles (Ann Arbor, 1970), 167.
30
ARF, a. 782, 60.
31
Einhard, Vita Karoli, c. 7, 9–10; Appleby, ‘Spiritual progress’, 600–1.
32
Annales Laureshamenses 801, ed. Pertz (MGH Scriptores 1); Collins, Charlemagne, 148–52; H. Mayr-Harting, ‘Charlemagne,
the Saxons, and the imperial coronation of 800’, English Historical Review, 111 (1996), 1113–33; J. Ehlers, ‘Die Sachsenmission als
heilsgeschichtliches Ereignis’, in: Vita Religiosa im Mittelalter, ed. F. Felten and N. Jaspert (Berlin, 1999), 37–9, 48.
33
Rabanus Maurus, Liber de oblatione puerorum, PL 107, 432B; M. de Jong, In Samuel’s image. Child oblation in the early medieval
west (Leiden, 1996), 83.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
43
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The Translatio sancti Alexandri, which Rudolf of Fulda began and his confre`re Meginhart completed
probably around 865, illustrates how this traditional narrative could be continued.
The text describes
the removal of that saint’s relics from Rome to Wildehausen in Saxony.
Originating at a former
missionary centre and with a Saxon patron, it offers a frequently sympathetic narrative, although one
firmly within the imperial tradition of ethnic subordination.
When Rudolf copies his account of Saxon
culture from Tacitus’ Germania, he adds that the pagan Saxons, though fatally lacking knowledge of true
religion, possessed good customs according to natural law.
He favours the nobility, especially the pagan
leader Widukind, whose grandson, Waltbraht, uncoincidentally had commissioned Rudolf’s account.
At the same time Rudolf adheres to the overarching vision of his Frankish sources, most notably
Einhard and the Carolingian annals. Even in his most striking contribution, writing a myth of origins,
a clear, conventional relationship between the Saxons and Franks emerges.
In this account, the
Saxons are violent pagan newcomers. After ‘cruelly’ pillaging their way through weaker tribes, they
eventually find stability as clients of the Frankish king, who gives them land.
The implication is clear:
the Saxons find their proper, civilised place under Frankish governance. Consequently their fight
against Charlemagne is a betrayal of old friendship. After wretchedly prolonging the war through their
perfidy, the Saxons are finally conquered, converted, and made one with the Franks. This account of the
war derives from Einhard, but Rudolf quickly repeats this last point in his own words: ‘they were joined
to the people of God even to the present day.’
The passive voice is not accidental: the Saxons are acted
upon. Rudolf tacitly equates the populus Dei with the Franks, the only other named people, who are the
true actors under Charlemagne. The Saxons are assimilated into this union under them.
Meginhart’s continuation leaves little doubt that the converted Saxons are still not free of their
ancestral taint. Waltbraht, in 850, seeks the aid of Lothar, Louis of Italy, and Pope Leo IV in acquiring
relics. Such requests were usual for relic translations, but the rationale here is not: Alexander’s relics
are needed so that the Saxons ‘would be converted from pagan rites and superstitions to the true
religion by their signs’, signs which are for ‘both the faithful and unfaithful’.
There are still a number
of infideles and pagans among the Saxons half a century after their conversion, with noble exceptions
such as Waltbraht. The only way of firmly establishing Christian faith among this perfidious people is
a display of force, this time through a saint’s virtus instead of secular military power.
Alexander’s
miracles do in fact attract spectators and the hopeful infirm, though the Saxons do not stand out from
34
Rudolf may have written his historical prologue as a freestanding piece, which Meginhart then incorporated into the
translatio, but the two have at least a similar perspective. Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 711–14; T. Klu¨ppel, ‘Die Germania’, in:
Corpus christianorum hagiographies, II, ed. G. Philippart (Turnhout, 1996), 181–2; Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 127–34;
E. Goldberg, Struggle for empire. Kingship and conflict under Louis the German (Ithaca, 2006), 176–9. There is no manuscript
evidence for circulation in Saxony, but as the patron and the relics were in Saxony, early dissemination there is highly likely.
Widukind of Corvey and Adem of Bremen used Rudolf in tenth- and eleventh-century Saxony.
35
Presumably not the Alexander whose relics Fulda already possessed: Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 129–30.
36
But compare H. Beumann, ‘Die Hagiographie ‘‘Bewa¨ltigt’’: Unterwerfung und Christianisierung der Sachsen durch Karl den
Grossen’, in: Cristianizzazione ed organizzazione ecclesiastica delle campagne nell’alto medioevo (Settimane di studio del Centro
italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo 28, Spoleto, 1982), 146–8. Rudolf had no documented connection with Saxony beyond this
translatio: Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 709–13.
37
TAlex. c. 2, 424.
38
Wood, ‘Beyond satraps’, 282; Goldberg, Struggle for empire, 178–9, but note that the nobles are still pagan.
39
For Rudolf as the originator: Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 712–13; Wood, ‘Beyond satraps’, 280–2; with parallels in I. Wood,
‘Misremembering the Burgundians’, in: Die Suche, ed. Pohl, 146–7. On possible oral tradition: Becher, Rex, 31–5; see the caution
in J. Nelson, review of Becher, Rex, English Historical Review, 113 (1998), 955–7.
40
‘terram eorum crudeliter ferro vastavit et igni.’ TAlex., c. 1, 423; compare Rudolf on the Vikings: ‘Nordmanni Dorestadum
incendentes vastaverunt.’ Annales Fuldensis, ed. F. Kurze (MGH SRG 7, Hanover, 1891), a. 847, 36.
41
‘adunati sunt populo Dei usque in hodierum diem.’ TAlex., c. 3, 426.
42
‘quatenus earum signis et virtutibus sui cives a paganico ritu et superstitione ad veram religionem converterentur. [.]
pariter fidelibus et infidelibus.’ TAlex., c. 4, 427–8.
43
The actual extent of Christianisation is obscure though most scholars are pessimistic: R.M. Karras, ‘Pagan survivals and
syncretism in the conversion of Saxony’, Catholic Historical Review, 72 (1986), 553–72; C. Carroll, ‘The bishoprics of Saxony in the
first century after Christianisation’, Early Medieval Europe, 8 (1999), 219–46, esp. 239–41; Goldberg, Struggle for empire, 176–7;
see also E. Goldberg, ‘Popular revolt, dynastic politics and aristocratic factionalism in the early middle Ages: the Saxon Stellinga
reconsidered’, Speculum, 70 (1995), 475–6.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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non-Saxon crowds in either numbers or enthusiasm.
Meginhart gives us no further indication of
whether the project of Christianisation was successful. Despite some sympathetic remarks, the
Translatio sancti Alexandri views the bulk of Saxons as violent and untrustworthy pagans in need of
Frankish tutelage, under which Christian civilisation eventually might flourish.
The Translatio sancti Viti
The Translatio sancti Viti is one of the earliest Saxon sources and the first to take up the debate on Saxon
identity. It narrates the coming of Christianity to Saxony, the early history of the monastery of Corvey in
the diocese of Paderborn, the acquisition of the relics of St Vitus from St-Denis in 836 and their
subsequent translation to Corvey. The author, an eyewitness to the translation and probably a monk of
Corvey, wrote sometime during the following decades.
One audience for the text was certainly local,
but the author may have hoped for wider circulation at least via its mother house, Corbie.
The paucity
of early manuscripts complicates tracing the Translatio’s diffusion, but its possible use by the Translatio
sanctae Pusinnae, Widukind of Corvey and Anskar of Bremen demonstrates a continuing audience
within Corvey’s religious network.
The author of the Translatio sancti Viti probably had access to the revised Annales regni Francorum
and Einhard’s Vita Karoli, but he, unlike Rudolf, chose to ignore these sources and construct his own
narrative emphasising the place of the Saxons within a Christian, rather than a Frankish, world.
He
skims over the political conquest of Saxony as briefly as possible. He does allow that the Saxons had
‘rebelled’ prior to Charlemagne’s conquests, and says nothing about later conflicts.
He only
acknowledges the forcible nature of the Saxons’ religious conversion in a sheepish, two-word aside.
That aside comes as part of the unknown author’s most important innovation, the appropriation of
the triumphal progress of Christ through all the earth.
Therefore after the passion and resurrection of our Lord Saviour, after the triumphs of the
apostles and victories of the martyrs, at length the King of Kings and the Lord of strength then
returned peace to his church after the enemies of peace were vanquished, so that those very
kings [.] whose ancestors killed [the martyrs] visited their tombs. And this victory of Christ,
though it leapt among the Romans first, pierced the tribe of the Lombards and more gloriously
undertook to triumph in Francia, attacked the Spanish, besieged the British, subjected the tribe
of the English; and the Saxons themselves, who were kin of the English, bowed their necks with
devout mind, [though] admittedly compelled.
The Saxons here find their place in a Christian narrative, not a pagan origin myth.
They enter Christ’s
empire and, while they are a conquest, so are the Franks and everyone else. Even the Roman imperial
crown, inherited by the Carolingians, had fallen to God’s martyrs, and whatever dominion the Franks
currently have stems from serving God.
The unity of the realm is based on universal submission to
44
TAlex., c. 6–8, 430–1.
45
I. Schmale-Ott, Introduction, TViti, 23–5; Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 853–5; Klu¨ppel, ‘Germania’, 195; Ro¨ckelein, Reliquien-
translationen, 100–8. See also Appleby, ‘Spiritual progress’, 603–6, but note our disagreements on the acceptance of the Frankish
narrative and ‘Frankish-Saxon unity’.
46
See Schmale-Ott, Introduction, TViti, 5.
47
Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 102.
48
The texts were available at Corvey at least by the late ninth-century: Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 863; Appleby, ‘Spiritual
progress’, 601. On their popularity, see above n. 19.
49
TViti, c. 3, 34.
50
‘licet compulsi.’ TViti, c. 1, 32.
51
‘Post salvatoris igitur Domini nostri passionem et resurrectionem, post triumphos apostolorum ac victorias martyrum
tandem ipse rex regum et dominus virtutum superatis pacis inimicis pacem ecclesiae suae restituit adeo, et ipsi reges [.] quos
antecessores sui trucidarant, sepulchra ambiant. Quae victoria Christi cum primum apud Romanos tripudiaret, Longobardorum
gentem penetravit atque in Francia gloriosius triumphare cepit, Hispanos adiit, Britannos conclusit, Anglorum gentem subegit;
et licet compulsi ipsi Saxones, qui Anglorum socii fuerant, devota mente colla submittunt.’ TViti, c. 1, 32.
52
For parallels in Frankish historiography see McKitterick, History and memory, 10, 99.
53
TViti, c. 3, 34.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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Christianity; and so the conquest of Saxony should offer little shame to the Saxons or glory to the
Franks, nor implication that the latter absorbed the former.
Through this vision of Christian empire, the Translatio sancti Viti continuously places the Saxons in
situations which parallel those of others. The dispatch of priests and monks to Saxony is (misleadingly)
portrayed as merely part of the reform of the whole empire: ‘[Charlemagne] called together all who
were magnates, bishops and leading men in his dominion, and most zealously sought out how he
might strengthen the true faith and true religion in his whole realm.’
The desire for relics stems from
this universal process of strengthening Christianity rather than a peculiar Saxon intransigence. In
accord with the example of Fulrad of Saint-Denis, Warin of Corvey seeks Vitus’ relics simply for his
house’s glory and to strengthen the faith of his people.
When the relics arrive at Corvey, the people
flock to them ‘on account of piety and of reverence for the most blessed martyr Vitus’.
There is no hint
that these Saxons need to be turned from their pagan ways.
The Translatio sancti Viti not only eradicates the liabilities of Saxon history through its narrative of
universal submission to Christ, but also creates a positive picture of Saxon competence and devotion.
The Saxons are God’s model assistants, and so ought to be considered as such by Christian rulers. When
Charlemagne proposes the foundation of Corvey, this Christianising endeavour quickly becomes
a Saxon self-help project. Adalhard of Corbie immediately turns to his Saxon oblates for assistance. It is
one of them, Thiodradus, who suggests a site and negotiates with his family for it; they eagerly
acquiesce.
This Saxon participation in the building up of Christianity contrasts with Frankish
attitudes. The leaders of Corbie are eager to assist, but the rest of the realm lacks fervour. The actual
foundation of Corvey is delayed for several years because of internal Frankish squabbling.
Then
numerous Franks spurn Warin’s request for the body of just one saint, although they are blessed with
an abundance.
The Franks are never explicitly condemned, and indeed the emperors and Corbie
monks act in a praiseworthy manner, but the Saxons show none of this lukewarmness. Among the
Saxons, even the common people are zealous. The Franks greet the passage of Vitus’ relics with
enthusiasm, but the Saxons’ response is incredibilis and describable only in superlatives.
The potent ideological value of supporting Christianisation should not be underestimated.
Mission was something in which civilised nations engaged in order to establish their credentials as
leading powers. Charlemagne’s past recruitment of the Saxon nobility into the service of his church
offered an obvious lever for dispelling negative perceptions of the Saxons and creating a history which
could be a proud rallying point for future activity.
The goal of the Translatio sancti Viti was not anti-Frankish polemic, much less an attack on the
Carolingian rulers, but rather an assertion of the right and ability of the Saxons to be fully fledged
members of a Christian people equal to anyone else. Its key strategy lay in massaging Saxony’s past
within a common Christian history. The Corvey monk may have hoped to remind the new kings of the
value of their Saxon subjects in the difficult times which followed the death of Louis the Pious (whom
the Saxons had supported against his heirs) and the subsequent Stellinga revolt, in which Saxon
commoners frightened their ‘betters’, violently attempting to restore the pre-conquest status quo.
The author certainly did create a way for the Saxon elite to understand themselves as worthy equals of
the Franks.
54
‘Convocavit omnes, qui sub ditione sua erant maiores, sacerdotes et principes, atque studiosssime quaesivit, quomodo
veram fidem veramque religionem in universo regno suo firmaeret ‘(Emphasis mine).’ TViti, c. 3, 34–6.
55
TViti, c. 5, 48.
56
‘propter religionem et reverentiam beatissimi martyris Viti.’ TViti, c. 27, 62.
57
TViti, c. 3, 36; Appleby, ‘Spiritual progress’, 605–6, but note that the text makes no mention of Warin’s mixed Saxon-
Frankish ancestry.
58
TViti, c. 3, 36–42.
59
TViti, c. 4, 46.
60
‘tam pulcherrimo et devotissimo populo.’ TViti, c. 22, 58; compare the Franks: TViti, c. 20, 58.
61
Thus Charles the Bald decided to aid the abortive Bulgar mission even though any direct political benefit would have
accrued to his sometime rival, Louis the German: Annales Bertiniani, a. 866, 85–6.
62
See Goldberg, ‘Popular revolt’, 475–8; H. Schmidt, ‘U
¨ ber Christianisierung und gesellschaftliches Verhalten in Sachsen und
Friesland’, Niedersa
¨chsisches Jahrbuch fu
¨r Landesgeschichte, 49 (1977), 19–21.
63
The uncertain date of composition makes these precise goals speculative.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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The Translatio sanctae Pusinnae
The Translatio sanctae Pusinnae, which was written at Corvey’s sister convent of Herford and may have
drawn upon the Translatio sancti Viti, incorporates similar strategies. It then ventures beyond them by
directly establishing virtues as defining Saxon characteristics rather than stubborn infidelity. This
composition relates the translation of the body of St Pusinna from Chaˆlons-sur-Marne to Herford in
860, and is prefaced by a new account of the Saxon conversion. The author of the Translatio sanctae
Pusinnae, probably one of Herford’s nuns, wrote her work between 862 and 875.
Like the writer of the Translatio sancti Viti, the author of the Translatio sanctae Pusinnae departs from
the rhetoric of Einhard and the annals.
She too prefaces her account of St Pusinna’s translation by
noting that the movement of relics was a general phenomenon that increased a house’s prestige, but
goes further in denying that Hadewig, abbess of Herford, was concerned even with strengthening
faith.
When the relics arrive, a huge crowd of unbelievably devout Saxons greets them, belying any
need for conversion or reform.
In a novel twist, the Translatio sanctae Pusinnae completely omits the Frankish people from its
historical prologue and goes further than the Translatio sancti Viti in glossing over the notion of
coercion. The opening gospel quotation on Christ’s continuing presence marks this as Christian history.
Within that narrative, ‘the Saxon people [.] having been barely subdued to Charlemagne’s power
through the chances of war over 30 years and by God willing it, took up faith in God, hope of eternal
blessedness, and alliance with the Divine Word’; then, after conversion, they enthusiastically embrace
the faith, willingly giving their possessions and children to monasteries.
The voice of the verbs is
active and the Saxons as a distinct people are their subject. The Saxons are the agents in their
conversion, alongside God and impersonal chance, and so there is no shame in their past.
The author elaborates this idea of the Saxons choosing Christianity by introducing a claim of
primeval Saxon virtue as their defining trait. Rudolf grants the Saxons military prowess, nobility, and
good natural laws.
The author of the Translatio sanctae Pusinnae agrees, but beyond good laws, claims
the more general virtue of superlative wisdom.
But there is a problem here: if the Saxons are so wise,
then why did they cling so stubbornly to their paganism? The author’s answer is unique in the early
middle ages. She respectfully puts herself in the mindset of her pagan ancestors and suggests that the
Saxons converted with difficulty.
Since they were held in check by the old rites and it seemed an evil thing to ascribe error to the
rituals of their ancestors, which evidently would have followed from the adoption of new sacred
things and setting aside the old practices. For the one who hastens to renounce the rituals
handed on to him by his ancestors, tacitly confesses that they had erred but that he had found
the truth. But whether that is to be called stubbornness, obstinacy or perversity, or [whether] it
is to be more appropriately designated by any other name [such as] natural intelligence and the
sharpest and most noble talent for all subtlety, it [that is, Saxon conservatism] was undermined
by fitting reasons and examples; and afterwards it also was broken down and conquered by
64
A. Cohausz, ‘Der Hl. Walther von Herford’, in: Festgabe fur Alois Fuchs, ed. W. Tack (Paderborn, 1950), 405; Wattenbach–
Lo¨we, DGM, 868–9; Klu¨ppel, ‘Germania’, 196; Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 108–17. The scholarship before Ro¨ckelein
assumed a male author, which is possible, but see J. Nelson, ‘Women and the word in the earlier middle ages’, in: Women in the
Church, ed. W.J. Sheils and D. Wood (Studies in Church History 27, Oxford, 1990), 53–98; R. McKitterick, ‘Women and literacy in
the early middle ages’, in her Books, scribes and learning in the Frankish kingdoms (Aldershot, 1994), essay XIII, 1–43, esp. 23;
K. Leyser, Rule and conflict in an early medieval society. Ottonian Saxony (Bloomington, 1979), 49–73. The text is also in
R. Wilmans, Die Kaiserurkunden der Provinz Westfalen 777–1313: I (Mu¨nster, 1867), 539–46, unfortunately without substantial
improvement since it survived in only one manuscript (now lost).
65
She certainly had access to sources written outside Saxony and makes a possible (though unlikely) reference to the Annales
regni Francorum a. 826: Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 110–11.
66
TPus., c. 3, 4, 171; her specific examples do not include Waltbraht.
67
TPus., c. 7, 172.
68
‘gens Saxonum [.] Imperatoris Caroli auspiciis varia sorte bellorum vix per triginta annos Deo volente subdita, Verbi divini
foedera et fidem in Deum et spem beatitudinis suscepit aeternae.’ TPus., c. 1, 170–1; Appleby, ‘Spiritual progress’, 607.
69
TAlex., c. 1-2, 674–5.
70
TPus., c. 1, 170.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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arguments and by true proofs, as though by siege engines against walls [.] Therefore, as it
usually happens, the more the [people] was earlier led away from the Christian religion by innate
virtue, all the more passionately it surrendered itself to it in the end.
In other words, the Saxons wisely resisted Christianity since no one ought to abandon their
ancestors’ traditions without good reason; rather, the Franks who utter derogatory epithets against
Saxon stubbornness contravene reason. In an age respectful of tradition, it is a brilliant rebuttal. Indeed,
the entire Frankish strategy of military adventure is shown to be hopelessly muddled, since the
eminently rational pagan Saxons convert in the end because they find convincing proofs for
Christianity.
Rudolf, Einhard and the others were wrong: the Saxons are not fickle and perfidious but
rather so faithful as to endure years of struggle for their original beliefs d and now they might be
expected to hold onto their new religion with equal or greater fervour. Virtue formed the core Saxon
characteristic, in contrast to the Franks’ hasty violence and judgements.
The author of the Translatio sanctae Pusinnae forcibly repeats this point with another unusual
decision. The relics arrive in Saxony; then, abruptly, the narrative stops. Instead of the usual string of
miracles which one would expect, the author informs us that, although many wonders did occur, it
really does not matter. Christianity is a matter of faith: ‘miracles are more necessary for the unfaithful
than the faithful’.
The Saxons have no need of the miracles; therefore they are the true possessors of
faith, rather than being given to infidelity. Immediately before making this point, the author inserts
a quick retrospective digression in which she repeats how it took tremendous pressure for the Franks of
Chaˆlons-sur-Marne to release Pusinna’s body. This odd narrative regression is not accidental. The
reason the populace resists the attempts to move the body is ‘so that they might not lose the great
patronage of that virgin, which they did not doubt that they had possessed in her up to that point, on
account of the abundance of signs’.
The Franks are the ones who need signs, as the digression reminds
us. They then must be the infideles to which the text refers. The role reversal is sharp. Clearly Saxons are
strong, intelligent, faithful, and powerful agents within the Carolingian world, and a man or woman
would be proud to be one.
The approach of the Translatio sanctae Pusinnae to miracles is not a theological innovation but
a literary one. Many Carolingians spoke of the limits of miracles and worried about attributing them to
the living, but few or none carried out the logical implication of ignoring their performance around
relics.
The omission of wonders undermines a primary function of hagiographical texts, namely, the
promotion of the local cult. There is little in the text to engender devotion to Pusinna’s relics, a problem
which was resolved shortly afterwards by the compilation of a separate dossier of miracles.
What
happened to cause these radical innovations?
The rivalry of two Saxon families suggests one answer. The Ekbertines represented the leadership of
Corvey and Herford, while Widukind’s descendants, notably Waltbraht, exercised powerful influence
in other parts of Saxony.
The author of the Translatio sanctae Pusinnae wrote around the time d and
71
‘Quoniam antiquis ritibus tenebatur, et nefas videbatur maiorum ceremoniis errorem ascribere: quod videlicet fiebat
novorum sacrorum susceptione et veterum rituum abdicatione. Qui enim ceremoniis a maioribus sibi traditis renuntiare
contendit, errare eos se vero veritatem invenisse, tacite confitetur. Sed illa sive duritia sive pertinacia sive perversitas dicenda
est, sive alio quolibet nomine convenientius appellanda, prudentia naturali et ingenio ad omnem subtilitatem nobilissimo et
acutissimo, rationibus commodis et exemplis labefacta; post etiam argumentis et approbationibus validis, quasi quibusdam
muralibus machinis, infracta et expugnata est [.] itaque, ut solet fieri, quo magis efficacia naturali abducebatur prius a reli-
gione Christiana, ita ferventissime demum eidem sese mancipavit.’ TPus., c. 1, 170–1.
72
No doubt drawing upon the missionary philosophy espoused by Alcuin and others: see above, n. 28.
73
‘quod signa magis infidelibus quam fidelibus necessaria sunt.’ TPus., c. 11, 172, also c. 10, 172; Appleby, ‘Spiritual progress’,
608–10; compare Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 348–9.
74
‘ne tanta amitterent eiusdem virginis patrocinia, quae se hactenus in ea habuisse non dubitabant, propter frequentiam
signorum.’ TPus., c. 6, 171.
75
Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi, c. 14, 127–8. See also Gregory the Great, Homiliae in evangelia, PL, 76, 1.4.3 and 2.29.4, 1090–1, 1215–16;
P. Riche´, ‘Les Carolingiens en queˆte de saintete´’, in: Les Fonctions des saints dans le monde occidental (IIIe–XIIIe sie`cle),
ed. J.-Y. Tilliette (Rome, 1991), 217–24; Appleby, ‘Spiritual progress’, 610–12.
76
K. Honselmann, ‘Berichte des 9. Jahrhunderts u¨ber Wunder am Grabe der hlg. Pusinna in Herford’, Dona Westfalica, Schriften
der historischen Kommission Westfalens, IV (Mu¨nster, 1963), 128-36. Note also the lack of manuscripts for TPus.
77
Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 109, 128.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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quite possibly immediately after d the Translatio sancti Alexandri was presented to Waltbraht. If Corvey
and Herford were previously unaware of the new work, they would have learned of it soon from their
friends in Bremen, who kept an eye on Alexander’s rival cult in neighbouring Wildehausen.
For
a Saxon as proud of her heritage as this nun, and as conscious of her patrons having sacrificed land,
children and time to build up the church, the appearance of the Translatio sancti Alexandri with its
subscription to submissive incorporation with the mighty Franks would have been galling. Patronage
by a rival family would have sweetened the chance to offer a rebuttal through another view of history.
The Translatio sanctae Pusinnae neatly meets and subverts the account which Rudolf repeats. The
Saxons are not a treacherous and obstinate people subsumed into a Frankish world, but rather an
extremely virtuous one actively building up the church within a Christian story. Here the evidence
points to a real debate on where and how the Saxons stood in the Carolingian world: whether on their
own strength within a multi-national Christian empire or through joining under the ruling people of
the Carolingian kings.
This debate stemmed from a time fraught with possibilities. The Division of Frankfurt in 865 created
Louis the Younger’s subkingdom of Franks and Saxons. The new sub-ruler’s rebellious self-assertion
against his father, Louis the German, created an opportunity for the Saxons to offer themselves as
a powerful constituency for a monarch searching for support.
The Translatio sanctae Pusinnae
emphasises the court connections of Warin and Hadewig alongside general Saxon reliability, both
relevant to current politics.
Further muddying the political waters, the temporary de´tente between
the elder Louis and Charles the Bald from 859 to 869 allowed the latter to authorise several translations
of relics, including those of Pusinna, from West to East Francia.
While no doubt pious, Charles also
used this time to cultivate support covertly within his half-brother’s kingdom with an eye towards
future conflict.
The Translatio sanctae Pusinnae, by denying the need for Christianisation within
Saxony, interpreted Charles’ gift in a way that made Herford less beholden to him. Relics were
a valuable gift, but the gift of the Christian faith would have been infinitely more valuable, and that gift
usually came with political subjugation.
The prudent nun of Herford thus suggested a way for her
audience, primarily her abbey’s leadership and its Ekbertine network, to avoid the appearance of
compromising their fidelity to the East Frankish monarchs, while still acknowledging the generosity of
a neighbouring king who one day might have moved east.
As history unfolded, these possibilities and
hopes attached to them remained unfulfilled.
The Translatio sancti Liborii
Our final Saxon text, the Translatio sancti Liborii, written in the same region as Corvey and Herford but
unconnected with their patrons, offers a more nuanced view of Saxons and Franks. Bishop Biso of
Paderborn (887–909) commissioned one of his Saxon clerics to record a relic translation of 836 from
Le Mans to Paderborn.
The author would have generally been familiar with Corvey and may have
drawn on its Translatio sancti Viti, although the parallels are not conclusive.
He knew the older
Frankish narrative too through Einhard’s Vita Karoli.
78
Miracula sancti Willehadi auctore Anskarii, ed. A. Poncelet (AASS Nov. 3), c. 11–12, 849; Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 80.
For knowledge of Fulda see Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 105–7, 110.
79
Becher, Rex, 131–48, 193–4; see also Goldberg, Struggle for empire, 276–9.
80
TPus. c. 2–3, 171; Appleby, ‘Spiritual progress’, 607–8.
81
J. Nelson, Charles the Bald (London, 1992), 195, 198, 219–20. Almost all the ninth-century relic transfers between the two
separate realms occurred during this period: see Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, Table 1, 374–6, but see also 262.
82
Nelson, Charles, 201–2; compare Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 64–6.
83
Sullivan, ‘Carolingian missionary’, 733; see also L. von Padberg, ‘Herrscher als Missionare: spa¨tantike und fru¨hmittel-
alterliche Zeugnisse zur Rolle der Ko¨nigsmacht im Christianisierunsprozess’, in: Akkulturation. Probleme einer germanisch-
romanischen Kultursynthese, ed. D. Ha¨germann, W. Haubrichs and J. Jarnut (Berlin, 2004), 319–23.
84
As Charles attempted at least tentatively: Nelson, Charles, 222–6, 244–6.
85
The author calls the Saxons ‘nostra gens’. TLib., c. 1 and 11, 187-8 and 198; Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 849–52; Klu¨ppel,
‘Germania’, 196–7; Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 96–100.
86
G. Huffer, Korveier Studien. Quellenkritische Untersuchungen zur Karolinger-Geschichte (Mu¨nster, 1898), 38–9.
87
TLib., c. 2, 188–9; de Vry, Liborius, 68–74.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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The Paderborn cleric worked from now lost written and oral traditions, including a source he
identifies as a Saxon eyewitness named Ido.
Erconrad, a deacon of Le Mans, wrote another account of
the translation which the Paderborn cleric also used. This version is preserved in different recensions in
two later manuscripts from Bielefeld and Avranches.
However, the first nine chapters of the Pader-
born Translatio sancti Liborii detailing the conversion of Saxony are unique to it, as are the other
editorial decisions discussed here unless otherwise noted.
As with other examples of the genre, the author of the Translatio sancti Liborii sets the stage with
a short history of the Saxon conversion and the founding of his community. The creation of Paderborn
and the translation of Liborius’ relics are both a direct result of efforts to convert the Saxons:
But since the people were yet unformed in faith and the mass of commoners had been torn away
from error towards becoming righteous people with the greatest difficulty d [and were still]
secretly turning (convertans) themselves to the practice of certain ancestral superstitions
d
[Bishop Badurad of Paderborn] realised that if he ordered the body of a saint to be carried
there, a great number of the inhabitants, persuaded by the manifestation of miracles (as custo-
marily occur) and by the grace of healings, would begin to worship and become accustomed to
flocking to his patronage. They could be recalled from infidelity by nothing else more easily.
This author’s willingness to contemplate Saxon lack of faith after conversion is surprising in light of the
reticence of the two earlier Saxon writers. Historical distance from pagan Saxony may explain his
attitude, but only partially. Note that the author carefully avoids the word ‘Saxon’ in this section.
Further, note that the people ‘had been torn away’ (pluperfect) from error previously but they have
only a rude faith.
These two curious authorial decisions begin a radical reconceptualisation of the
Saxon conversion which rehabilitates at least the elite from a shameful past.
The conception of an unformed (rudis) people creates an alternative to the annals’ insistence on
conversion as an instantaneous event; rather there are a series of stages pushing toward a mature,
internalised Christianity. Charlemagne’s military success is only the first step, although the author does
credit him with conversione nostrae gentis.
Yet after Charlemagne’s death, the Saxons are still con-
vertans themselves towards ancient superstitions. By using convertere in two separate ways, especially
as a present participle indicating ongoing action, the author undermines any connotation of definitive
reorientation. Following conquest, preachers have to be sent to a semipagana natio.
Then churches
and episcopal cities have to be established as permanent bases ‘for teaching and strengthening the
people in holy religion’, and measures taken even afterwards to protect against the population’s
perfidia.
Teaching implies Christians are still unformed or semi-pagan, while strengthening assumes
already existing faith, a purposely ambiguous situation.
88
TLib., c. 10, 197.
89
The Bielefeld manuscript might accurately transmit Erconrad’s text, but probably edits it. A late Le Mans legendary
transmits another short version of little relevance to this article: Eiusdem translationis historia, ed. J. Bollandus (AASS Jul. 5),
425–6. For bibliography see de Vry, Liborius, 41-158. Bielefeld, Avranches and Paderborn versions in: La Translation de saint
Liboire (836) du diacre Erconrad, ed. A. Cohausz (Archives historiques du Maine 14, Le Mans, 1967); note his chapter division
differs from de Vry.
90
‘Quia vero rudis adhuc in fide populus, et maxime plebebium vulgus difficile poterat ab errore gentili perfectae divelli,
latenter ad avitas quasdam supersticiones colendas sese convertens, intellexit vir magnae prudentiae, quod si praecipui alicuius
sancti illus corpus allatum, miraculorum, ut fieri solet, ostensione et gratia sanitatum suadente, multitudo plebis inciperet
venerari et ad eius patrocinia confluere consuesceret, nulla re eam facilius ab infidelitate posse revocari.’ TLib., c. 9, 195–6.
91
See Augustine’s popular De catechizandis rudibus (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 46, Turnholt, 1969), 121–78, in which
the rudibus obviously need instruction but are not hostile pagans.
92
TLib., c. 7, 194.
93
TLib., c. 3, 189.
94
‘ad instruendam confirmandamque in sacra religione plebem.’ TLib., c. 3, 190; also c. 2 and 5, 189 and 192. According to this
text, cities were introduced solely for the reason that bishoprics must be based in them: ‘quia civitates, in quibus more antiquo
sedes episcopales constituerentur, illi paenitus provinciae deerant, loca tamen ad hoc [.] eligit’ (TLib., c. 2, 189). Archaeology
supports both the pre-Carolingian lack of cities and the connection of early Saxon urban (or ‘pre-urban’) sites with mission
centres: H. Steuer, ‘The beginnings of urban economies among the Saxons’, in: Continental Saxons, ed. Green, 159–81, esp. 159–
60, 173–4.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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This slow progress extends for decades until Liborius’ translation. Then Saxon neophytes flock to the
saint’s wonders, almost like a crowd to a street juggler, and suddenly are moved to praise and
weeping.
Appropriately the great celebratory Mass for the arrival of the relics occurs at Pentecost,
a point mentioned no fewer than three times.
The Pentecostal transformation of the apostles by the
Spirit into a missionary church encompassing all nations implicitly parallels the transformation of the
Saxon people. In this way, ‘such love (amorem) of divine praise was inspired among them by merits of
[Liborius . who] is not without praise of God, in the perfect love (karitate) of whom he ascends to that
great height of holiness.’
Although they do not yet possess karitas perfecta, the highest form of
Christian love, the Saxons now possess Christianity in their hearts and are on the path shown by their
patron, Liborius.
Unlike the silence of the Translatio sancti Alexandri, here the success in combating
pagan propensities is manifest.
This narrative of spiritual journey replaces Rudolf’s account of migration, the Translatio sancti Viti’s
exposition of the steady march of Christ’s victory, and the Translatio sanctae Pusinnae’s stubborn claim
of unvarying Saxon virtue. Simplistic conversion is here replaced by a kind of spiritual Christianisation.
Practical missionary experience supported this viewpoint, as did rough biblical parallels, but this
Paderborn cleric breaks new ground by creating a historical narrative that legitimises a status for semi-
pagan, unformed Christians.
His originality has practical consequences for the Saxons’ identity within
the populus Christianus.
The idea of slow Christianisation might seem derogatory to the Saxons until one takes into account
the author’s other literary decision. In the passage describing Badurad’s decision to obtain relics, the
word Saxones never appears.
In fact, the anonymous author speaks of Saxones only twice: near the
beginning, when he states Charlemagne’s goal to convert them, and near the end, when the arrival of
Liborius’ relics transform the Saxon people.
There is no unified Saxon people until the goal of
conversion is realised. The relics are translated specifically for a portion of that people only: the
plebebium vulgus (the lower classes).
The elites already have faith, and they lead the way towards an
identity for their Saxon nation based on Christianity and loyalty to the crown.
Saxony joins Christendom because of its own nobility. Charlemagne initially succeeds in Saxony
‘partly by arms, partly by generosity, by which he strongly joined the souls of the leading men to
himself’.
The first named agent of conversion besides Charlemagne is the Saxon Hathumar, founding
bishop of Paderborn.
The main hero of the narrative, Hathumar’s successor Badurad, is also a native
nobleman.
Representatives of the Saxon clerical and lay elite negotiate for Liborius’ bones. The story
of Christianisation over an extended period of time allows a certain group of Saxons to become its main
protagonists while the common people struggle in semi-paganism.
The Frankish elite is generally absent from this translatio. The Frankish bishops in charge of
preaching to the Saxons actually refuse to dwell inside Saxony for fear of native violence. The author of
the Translatio sancti Liborii does not reproach them, but also neither names nor praises them.
This
tactful economy contrasts with the immediate naming of Hathumar and his many virtues.
While
Erconrad’s original text mentioned a large number of Franks escorting the relics to the Rhine and being
met by an equal number of Saxons, the Paderborn translatio replaces even this pious Frankish crowd
95
TLib., c. 37, 217.
96
TLib., c. 1 and 38–9, 188 and 218; Bielefeld and Avranches each include only one mention: c. 26, 110–1.
97
‘Quem illis tantum divinae laudis amorem, eius meritis credimus inspiratum [.] quoniam et ipsius sola in caelis beatitudo,
vita et gloria, non nisi laus Dei est, in cuius karitate perfecta ad tantum ipsum sanctitatis culmen ascendit.’ TLib., c. 40, 219.
98
On ‘amor’ and ‘karitas’, see Rabanus Maurus, Homilia, PL 110, hom. 108, 349BC.
99
See above, n. 28; also Rabanus Maurus, Commentarium in Exodum, PL 108, 1.4, 21A.
100
TLib., c. 9, 195–6.
101
TLib., c. 2 and 37, 188 and 217.
102
TLib., c. 9, 195. Compare Goldberg, Struggle for empire, 178–9; Becher, Rex, 49–50.
103
‘partim armis, partim liberalitate, per quam maxime primorum eius animos sibi devinxerat.’ TLib., c. 2, 189.
104
TLib., c. 7, 193.
105
TLib., c. 8, 194.
106
TLib., c. 3 and 6, 189 and 192–3.
107
TLib., c. 7, 193.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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with generic references to the eastern and western peoples (populi and nationes) among whom the
Saxons stand out.
In this the anonymous author maintains a multi-ethnic idea of empire in which
the Franks have no special place as a people.
Three Franks stand out as exceptions: Charlemagne, Louis the Pious and the bishop of Le Mans. The
co-operation of the Saxon elite and the imperial house is repeatedly stressed, indicating the natural
utility of this partnership and the proper place of the Saxon nobility.
Ironically, the Franks of Le Mans
resist Emperor Louis by opposing the translation. Here the Frankish clerical elite finally does some
good. It may be that the Saxons and the bishop of Le Mans fail to observe the proper ritual, arousing the
informed ire of laity, but that does not explain why the author of the translatio makes this incident
central to his work.
For 14 full chapters d a quarter of the entire text d Bishop Aldric of Le Mans, his
chorbishop David (the only Franks named besides the kings) and divine power struggle with the crowd
of inhabitants on behalf of their Saxon brethren.
In a piece set in the exact middle of the Translatio, in the only passage presented as direct speech,
Aldric responds to his flock’s obstinacy with three arguments.
First, the emperor orders the trans-
lation and a spate of miraculous healings doubly demonstrates that God wills it.
Second, the
evangelical call of Christian charity (karitas) positively demands that they share their abundance of
saints’ bodies with their newly called brothers who lack these goods.
This common need for growth
towards perfect charity unites both Frankish and Saxon peoples. It is no coincidence that this episode
concludes with a pact of charity and eternal fraternity between the sees of Paderborn and Le Mans.
The model relationship between Frankish Aldric and Saxon Badurad is fundamentally one of aristo-
cratic equality based on labouring together to nurture Christianity in the world, despite differences in
material resources. Third, perhaps echoing the sentiments of the Translatio sanctae Pusinnae, Aldric
warns against believing Liborius’ patronage to be limited by his physical remains: ‘Thus he acquires
new servants and devotees for himself among that people newly converted to God, to whom the
corporal presence of his relics approaches, but from you his spiritual protection never withdraws.’
The bishop chides his Frankish flock for thinking in the same way that a newly converted people might:
carnally rather than spiritually. The bishops of Paderborn and Le Mans have similar education to
impart.
In short, the author of the Translatio sancti Liborii acknowledges the difficulty of the Saxon
conversion, but softens it in two ways: by making it the story of a continuous journey (not interminable
fickle relapses) emphatically shared with other Christians, and by removing the taint of defeat and
infidelity from the Saxon leaders. On this basis, the author outlines a vision of a multi-ethnic Caro-
lingian Christendom in which the Saxon elites are partners of the imperial crown. They occupy the
same level as the Frankish elite and have the same task of inculcating true Christian charity in their
respective territories, a task which probably legitimises their power. In fulfilling that role, the elite
become guardians of their peoples’ identity.
At the close of the ninth century when the Translatio sancti Liborii was composed, following the
re-incorporation of Louis’ kingdom of Saxons and Franks into the larger realm, Saxony had become
a backwater. Christianisation had progressed far enough to be no longer a royal concern, and the kings
found little other reason to cultivate Saxon aristocrats or visit Saxony.
The rise of Arnulf, whose coup
108
TLib., c. 37, 217; Bielefeld and Avranches, c. 25, 106–7.
109
TLib., c. 6, 7, 8 and 10, 192, 194 and 197.
110
Compare Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 336.
111
This section is expanded from Bielefeld, where all three arguments are present only in germ: c. 12, 74-8.
112
TLib., c. 22, 206.
113
TLib., c. 22, 206.
114
TLib., c. 24, 208. While present in Erconrad, the pact acquires a deeper meaning in light of Paderborn’s previous ruminations
on Christianisation.
115
‘In illo enim populo noviter ad Deum converso novos sibi servitores et veneratores adquiret ad quos corporali praesentia
suorum pignerum accedet, sed a vobis spiritalis eius protectio numquam recedet.’ TLib., c. 22, 206. In Bielefeld, Aldric does not
elaborate on this point or make the corporal/spiritual distinction: c. 12, 74–7.
116
Corvey and Paderborn’s sparse royal connections were noteworthy only by Saxon standards: S. MacLean, Kingship and
politics in the late ninth century (Cambridge, 2003), 98; Becher, Rex, 124–5; Carroll, ‘Bishoprics’, esp. 233, 236, 241.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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in 887 the Saxons supported, raised hopes of reversing their fortune, although these were
disappointed.
Still, when Arnulf passed through Corvey in 889, his future policy was unclear. The
‘Poeta Saxo’, an anonymous and otherwise unknown Saxon cleric or monk, may have composed his
epic poem about Charlemagne’s life for precisely this visit. His work recalled how that earlier monarch
had deemed the Saxon nobility worthy to be incorporated with the Franks on equitable, carefully
negotiated terms: ‘[they] were harmoniously made one nation (gens) and people (populus)/always
equally obeying one king.’
By implication, Arnulf should treat them with similar respect. The Poeta
Saxo, contrary to his normal practice, explicitly cites Einhard as an authority for his vision in case ‘this
perhaps seems doubtful to anyone’.
He expected debate, and with good reason. Arnulf’s court
apparently did doubt it, but so too did at least one Saxon, the author of the Translatio sancti Liborii.
While agreeing that the Saxon aristocracy should be prominent, he sought multiple gentes within one
royal and Christian populus.
This translatio should be seen as part of a continuing discussion among
the Saxon elite about which strategy offered a better future: further merging with the imperial
Frankish people or sustaining a sense of difference within the Christian Carolingian community as
a source of pride and identity.
Conclusion: strategies of Saxon identity
The Franks clearly dominated the Carolingian world. That fact, however, left open multiple possibilities
for other Carolingian gentes to understand themselves and their role within the empire. The Saxons
could have maintained a violent hostility towards all things connected with the Franks including
Christianity, as the Stellinga rebels may have done. They could have disowned their pagan forebears
and merged themselves fully into a new Frankish-Christian identity. They could have adopted an
attitude like that of the Alemani in which they thought of themselves alternately, on different levels, as
Franks and Saxons. That, alongside an affirmation of the superiority of Frankish identity, is what the
Frankish histories offered the Saxons. In the century following their incorporation into the Carolingian
realm and the Christian world, some Saxons did select one of those options, but others developed
a more complex sense of who they were in relation to the Franks and their realm.
The three Saxon translationes hold certain views in common. All rely on rewriting history to
articulate Saxon character within a Christian narrative. Charlemagne does a service in converting them,
but they are partners in their own transformation. Spiritual progress in Saxony is part of wider efforts
to build up the faith. This common quest for correct Christianity is what binds the empire together. The
Saxons are loyal and valuable servants of the crown. That loyalty and steadfastness form a core part of
their identity, in sharp contrast to the older stereotype of Saxon faithlessness which haunts these texts.
Finally, Saxons simply are not Franks.
There are also changes over time in these works. The Translatio sancti Viti is the most modest in its
strategy and in its attitude towards the Franks. The Translatio sanctae Pusinnae engages most vigorously
in its polemic, testifying to a high level of confidence and intellectual maturity, as well as growing
debate among the Saxon elite. It is most insistent on a continuity of rationality and virtue from
paganism to the present. The Translatio sancti Liborii takes a markedly elitist tack. The nobility creates
a place for its people through Christian labour. Its author is more open about the difficulties of ‘popular’
conversion, but historicises it as a distant event.
In the short term, these authors did not fundamentally alter Saxony’s position in the Frankish world,
but their primary audience would have been internal. Within at least the key diocese of Paderborn,
117
K.H. Kru¨ger, ‘Die a¨lteren Sachsen als Franken: zum Besuch des Kaisers Arnulf 889 im Kloster Corvey’, Westfalische Zeitschrift,
151–2 (2002), 224–4; see also Beumann, ‘Hagiographie’, 141.
118
‘Ut gens et populus fieret concorditer unus/Ac semper regi parens aequaliter uni.’ Poetae Saxonis Annalium de gestis Caroli
magni imperatoris, ed. P. von Winterfeld (MGH Poetae Latini 4:1, Hanover 1899), 4.113–14, 48; Kru¨ger, ‘Die a¨lteren Sachsen’,
239–41.
119
‘Si tamen hoc dubium cuiquam fortasse videtur.’ Poetae Saxonis, 4.115, 48.
120
Whether or not the TLib. hoped for a non-Saxon audience, he eventually reached one: de Vry, Liborius, 229–55. On the
author’s knowledge of the Poeta Saxo, see Kru¨ger, ‘Die a¨lteren Sachsen’, 239.
121
Although TLib. did not use gens, natio and populus as technical terms.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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they show that some of the Saxon elite continued to hold to a proud identity as a distinct people
throughout the second half of the ninth century, perhaps bolstered by the creation of Louis’ regnum
Saxonum et Francorum, but certainly surviving it.
In the longer term, when the Frankish line of the
Carolingians failed in the east, the ideas perceptible in these translationes formed a key foundation for
the construction of identity in Ottonian Saxony.
Within their own difficult world of the ninth
century, these three sources sketch the rising ambitions and confidence of at least a portion of Saxons,
who accepted and supported the Carolingian project without becoming ‘Frankish’ or accepting
subordination to non-royal Franks. Their use of sophisticated and original strategies to form new
historical perspectives in support of these goals demonstrates the vitality of post-conquest, post-
conversion Saxon society.
Acknowledgements
This article has benefited from the insightful guidance and critiques of Tom Noble, along with
comments from Jonathan Couser, Emily Gandolfi, Marcela Perett, John Scofield and the two anonymous
reviewers. I am also grateful for the financial support during the process of writing provided by the
University of Notre Dame and by the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowship.
Eric Shuler received his BA from Cornell University and his M.M.S from the University of Notre Dame. He is currently completing
his Ph.D. at Notre Dame with a dissertation entitled, ‘Almsgiving and the formation of Christian societies,
AD
700–1025’.
122
Textual production was sparser in other Saxon subregions: Ro¨ckelein, Reliquientranslationen, 95. Identifying ‘Saxon’
historical texts remains problematic, but compare: (a) Altfrid, Vita Liudgeri, ed. W. Diecamp, Die Vitae Sancti Liudgeri (Munster,
1881); Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 824–7; (b) Vita Willehadi, ed. A. Poncelet (AASS Nov. 3), 842–6; G. Niemeyer, ‘Der Herkunft der
Vita Willehadi’, Deutsches Archiv, 12 (1956), 17–35; Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 838; (c) Vita Lebuini antiqua, ed. O. Hofmeister
(MGH Scriptores 30:2, Leipzig, 1934), 789–95; Wattenbach–Lo¨we, DGM, 827–8; Wood, ‘Beyond satraps’, 277, 322.
123
Beumann, ‘Hagiographie’, 129–33; Becher, Rex, 54; Ehlers, ‘Sachenmission’, 48–52; H. Ro¨ckelein, ‘Das Gewebe der Schrif-
ten: historiographische Aspekte der Karolingerzeitlichen Hagiographie Sachsens’, in: Hagiographie in Kontext, ed. D. Bauer and
K. Kerbers (Stuttgart, 2000), 24–5; Kru¨ger, ‘Die a¨lteren Sachsen’, 243–4.
E. Shuler / Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010) 39–54
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