May 1, 2019 | Peter Fraundorfer | HI Research Blog|
Almost all the information we have about the famous holy bishop of Salzburg, Saint Rupert, can be and has been questioned. Where did the holy man originate? When did he live? When did he arrive in Salzburg? What exactly did he build or rebuild there? Where and when did he die? Generations of historians have tried to answer these central questions about the life of Saint Rupert. However, there are still no clear answers to some of these questions and this circumstance makes it even more fruitful to study the scholarly discussion about the life of Saint Rupert. This debate started long before the first historians tuned in. Accordingly, I will try to shed some light on the medieval discourse about the life of Saint Rupert, which is evident in the many redactions of the Vita Ruperti.
Wilhelm Levison, the editor of the oldest version of the Vita Ruperti, the so-called Gesta Hrodberti (BHL 7390), identified six different redactions (A-F). Accordingly, the Gesta Hrodberti are also known as redaction A. There are many educated guesses when this oldest version of the Vita Ruperti was written. Most likely the Gesta Hrodberti were composed during the reign of bishop Virgil of Salzburg in the middle of the 8th century. In the late 9th century, the second redaction of the Vita Ruperti can be found in the first chapters of the famous Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (BHL 7391). This version B and the GestaHrodberti seem to have a common template, the unknown redaction X. However, this theory is highly speculative because it is only based upon on textual comparisons between redactions A and B. The surviving manuscripts unfortunately cannot add much to this discussion because the oldest textual witness of the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum and accordingly also of redaction B stems from the 10th century. Most manuscripts that contain Vita B, furthermore, were written in the 12th century. At the same time, the first textual witnesses of a new liturgical Vita Ruperti, the so-called redaction C (BHL 7392/7393/7394), were recorded. There are currently over 23 manuscripts identified containing this version of the life of Saint Rupert and maybe there are still more to be discovered. The three late medieval redactions D (BHL 7397), E (BHL 7396) and F (BHL 7398) in comparison are not nearly as well documented in medieval manuscripts. Version D of the Vita Ruperti only survives in two handwritten documents from the late 15th century and E can be found in some early printed editions of the Legenda Aurea. Redaction F finally can only be studied through early humanistic editions that claim to be based on medieval manuscripts from Salzburg that have not survived.
All versions of the life of Saint Rupert are relics of the aforementioned medieval discourse about this holy bishop, a debate reflected in the modern historiography on this topic. The high and late medieval redactors of the Vita Ruperti also felt obliged to fill the information gaps in the older descriptions of the life of Saint Rupert. Accordingly, the first step of my research consists of finding these changes and additions. Afterwards I will try to give a sound theory for the causa scribendi for each redaction.
A good example to illustrate the updating of Saint Rupert in the high medieval redactions of the Vita Ruperti is the central question of his role in founding the bishopric of Salzburg. In the Gesta Hrodberti and the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum Rupert left his episcopal see in Worms and he ventured southwest to the court of the Bavarian duke Theodo in Regensburg. From there Saint Rupert went further down the Danube to Lauriacum, modern day Lorch near the city of Enns in Upper Austria. After that, the holy man finally settled in the old Roman city of Iuvavum, modern day Salzburg. There, according to the two oldest redactions, A and B, he founded a church dedicated to Saint Peter and a nunnery at the Nonnberg. Before his death, Saint Rupert returned to his “own” episcopal see (ad propriam remeavit sedem). This ambiguous phrase from redaction B has caused intensive discussions among modern scholars. Did Rupert found a bishopric at Salzburg or did he return to his episcopal see in Worms? Most of the historians studying the life of Saint Rupert agree upon the fact that the saint did not found an episcopal see at Salzburg and accordingly he returned to Worms before he died.
However, modern historians are not the first who tried to answer the question of where Saint Rupert died and accordingly where his “own” episcopal see was. In the C redaction of the Vita Ruperti the redactor (or redactors) tried to extinguish any doubts about the fact that at the time of his death his bishopric was in fact Salzburg. To accomplish this goal, he (or they) made two major changes to the Vita Ruperti. Firstly, infidels expelled Rupert from his episcopal see in Worms and secondly, he did not just build a church in Salzburg but rather an episcopal cathedra/seat (cathedram episcopalem).
Redaction C of the Vita Ruperti first appeared in manuscripts during a time of great distress for the archbishopric of Salzburg. It faced severe consequences for backing the papal side in the Investiture Controversy. Emperor Barbarossa even imposed an imperial ban on the archbishopric of Salzburg on the 29th of March 1166. Roughly, a year later a city-wide fire consumed the Romanesque dome built by Bishop Virgil in the 8th century. Contemporary writers identified the counts of Plain, imperial partisans, as arsonists. In this time of crisis, it certainly made sense to rewrite the Vita Ruperti to make sure the archbishop of Salzburg is seen as the successor of a famous holy bishop. When the archbishopric of Salzburg was harassed on all sides, Saint Rupert re-emerged as figurehead.
Since redaction C is the most widespread version of the life of Saint Rupert it is not surprising that its influence extends also to late medieval copies of other redactions. In a history of the archbishopric of Salzburg, contained in a manuscript written around 1500 in Salzburg, Saint Rupert is clearly identified as the founder of the bishopric of Salzburg (episcopi sedem) even though most of the text is based on redaction B of the Vita Ruperti. This example shows how the life and missionary work of Saint Rupert has been rewritten several times under the changing influence of new political realities by high and late medieval redactors.
