De Erkenwaldo. Narrativa agiografica come strumento di propaganda ideologica e rafforzamento dell’identità nazionale

Saint Erkenwald has long been object of scholarly discussion as deeply entrenched into the theological and ecclesiological debate that characterized the fourteenth and fi fteenth centuries in England and concerned the role of sacraments and the authority of the “visible” Church. Without denying the poet’s unquestionable theological intentions, the present paper will argue that assessing the importance of the church’s role in an individual’s salvation is one but not the only theme of the poem. Besides the main episode, namely the encounter with the pagan judge and his soul’s salvation through Saint Erkenwald’s baptism, the historical past of England on the one hand and the London society on the other are protagonists in the poem. Focusing on the historical elements present in Saint Erkenwald, the present paper shows that the author intended to incorporate the past of England in order to strengthen and foster a civic unifi cation. In this perspective, some of the peculiarities of this poem such as the unusual introduction summarizing the history of England and its Christianisation in the fi rst thirty-two verses or the social depiction of the London society, become fully motivated. This line of argumentation further reinforces the link between the poem and the texts of the so-called Alliterative Revival and of the manuscript Cotton Nero A.x.