| Literary parallels and other similarities between episodes in the lives of different saints have prompted modern critics to view vitae as generally unbelievable. Nevertheless, early-medieval authors and audiences frequently stated their belief in these fantastic narratives. The role and function of typology in patristic and early insular theology and historiography explains how medieval cultures accepted literary parallels and even plagiarisms as accurate accounts of historical events. In brief, typology was used as a tool for historical investigation.The concept of truth in Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England was intimately bound up with heaven. The semantic fields of Old Irish fir and Old English soth, both of which are frequently translated "true" or "truth," associated truth with the divine. Fir was perceived as deriving from the Otherworld, which was later interpreted as heaven, and entering this world through fir flathemon 'ruler's truth,' by which a productive society was established. A study of alliterative pairs in Anglo-Saxon verse likewise suggests that soth was linked with God-given victory. The Mediterranean traditions of philosophy and theology also viewed truth as resident in heaven or a higher plane of existence. Types, platonic and Christian, offered a means for understanding the heavenly reality. While typology was accepted as evidence for heavenly realities, it also became accepted for earthly ones. Once two personages or events became typologically linked, any unknown historical details of one partner could be determined by the known details of the corresponding partner.Insular hagiography expanded the number of possible theological formations by including in its theological repertoire secular heroes and native vernacular narratives. Episodes in a saint's Life could therefore be paralleled to events in the Bible, other vitae, folklore, and vernacular story. An examination of the evidence that hagiographers used, and of the purposes for which hagiography was used, demonstrates that these parallels were accepted as accurate accounts of historical events. Authors attached especial importance to eye-witness accounts, while hagiography was used liturgically, and also to settle theological, legal, and material disputes. The dissertation concludes with a variety of case studies investigating how particular theological compositions came about. |
