Table of Contents

The Christian anti-hero - Saint Martin of Tours: Sulpicius and the anti-heroic; Anti-war tropes in the Vita Sancti Martini; Soldier saints, holy warriors and the prehistory of the crusades. Holy kingship - sanctification of warfare: Holy kingship and the Anglo-Saxons; Tropes in the cult of martyred warrior kings; Edwin in the "Life of Gregory the Great"; Edwin in Bede's "Historia Ecclesiastica"; Oswald in Bede's "Historia Ecclesiastica"; The cult of warrior kings. Saint Guthlac, spiritual warrior: The trope of spiritual transformation; Guthlac and spiritual transformation; Earthly warfare in Felix's "Vita Sancti Guthlaci"; Spiritual warfare in Felix's "Vita Sancti Guthlaci"; King Ethelbald's spiritual transformation; Changing perceptions of warfare and sanctity. Holiness and heroism - poetic lives of warriors and saints: Hagiography and poetry; Heroic saintly women - Juliana and Elene; Juliana - steadfast soldier of Christ; Elene - saintly power and prestige; Andreas - warrior evangelist; The Anglo-Saxon spiritual warrior - Guthlac A & B; Guthlac B - lordship and sainthood; Guthlac A - transformation of the chosen saint; Old English verse saint's lives - unity in diversity. Alcuin and Abbo - cultural cross-pollination and the cult of kings: Cross-channel contacts and cultural cross-pollination; Alcuin's poem on the bishops, kings and saints of York; Edwin and heroic Christian kingship; Oswald, sceptre and sword; Abbo of Fleury's "Passio Sancti Eadmundi"; Abbo's Edmund - holy martyr, holy king; Holy cross, holy sword. Aelfric - path of the holy Christian soldier: Aelfric's "Lives of Saints" and the trope of spiritual fulfilment; Exclusions and inclusions - Aelfric's "Lives of Saints" as composite text; Warfare and violence in Aelfric's "Lives of Saints"; Alban, Edmund and Oswald - violence and Christian resistance; Judas Machabeus and the order of bellatores; "The forty soldiers, martyrs" and the trope of spiritual fulfilment; Aelfric's synthesis. Warfare and sanctity - record of a changing ethos: Hagiography and cultural change; Anglo-Saxon versions of the "Life of Martin"; Aldhelm's Martin - virgin of Christ; Alcuin's Martin - active fighter for Christ; Martin in the "Old English Martyrology" - saintly wonder-worker; The anonymous Martin homily - secular versus spiritual; Aelfric - changing conceptions of warfare and sanctity - St Martin, soldier sainthood and the call to crusade; Martin in the "Early South English Legendary" "with is swerd adrawe"; Warfare and sanctity in the later Middle Ages.