Saints and cults

Abstract

No two cult centres in England have exactly the same history between ad 900 and 1200, but if there is a general pattern it is that the period saw three great surges of interest in saints and their cults: the first took place at the end of the tenth century, the second in the six decades between 1070 and 1130 and the third and the most diffuse during the last three decades of the twelfth century. These periods saw efforts on the part of the leading churches to introduce new cults or to renew old ones. At Thorney, for example, there was much activity during the first two phases: diverse cults were relocated to the abbey when it was founded in the 970s; several of these cults – those of Botulf, Tancred, Torhtred and Tova – were subsequently equipped with vitae by Folcard, the viceabbas whom William the Conqueror appointed in about 1069; in 1098 the relics were translated to a new church built by Abbot Gunther, who had succeeded Folcard in 1085; more relics were then acquired in 1105 and 1111 – relics of Theodore the Martyr and then relics of the founder St Æthelwold himself; but there is little sign that the abbey's repertoire of cults was expanded or that they were provided with further textual support during the remainder of our period.

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