Aston’s article examines the references to St. Alban and St. Amphibalus in the Cooke Manuscript within the wider literary and historiographical tradition of medieval England. Aston, a scholar of medieval literature, situates his work at the intersection of philology, historiography, and the study of legendary accretions. His analysis is grounded in the textual history of saints’ lives and monastic literary production, particularly at St Albans Abbey, and addresses the implications of their inclusion in one of the two earliest Masonic texts.
Thesis and Main Contribution
Aston’s central thesis is that the references to St. Alban and St. Amphibalus in the Cooke MS must be understood not as isolated inventions but as products of a long, deliberate literary and monastic tradition centred at St Albans Abbey. He argues that these figures are “literary saints,” whose legend was progressively enlarged through invention, romanticisation, and institutional interest. The main contribution lies in demonstrating that the appearance of these saints in the Cooke MS strongly suggests a local connection to St Albans Abbey, both as a centre of textual production and as a community heavily invested in the cult of its patron saint.
Method and Rationale
Aston proceeds through a meticulous historical-literary survey of the Alban-Amphibalus legend, tracing its development from Gildas and Bede, through Geoffrey of Monmouth’s invention of Amphibalus, to the elaborations of William of St Albans, Ralph of Dunstable, Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris, and later compilers. He reconstructs the evolving tradition to show how successive textual accretions created an authoritative hagiographic corpus housed and cultivated at St Albans. His method is comparative and source-critical: he collates hagiographic texts, chronicles, abbey histories, and vernacular adaptations, situating them within the institutional setting of St Albans Abbey. This approach is well suited to uncovering the processes of invention and legitimisation that underlie the Cooke MS reference.
The article explicitly acknowledges the earlier work of Knoop, Jones, and Hamer (*The Two Earliest Masonic MSS*, 1938), agreeing with their palaeographical conclusions and adopting their readings at points (p. 188–189). Aston also engages with Wallace McLeod’s studies of the Alban-Amphibalus legends, citing his critical editions and contextual work. These references place Aston’s article in continuity with, but also an extension of, earlier scholarship: he deepens the contextualisation of the legend while shifting the focus toward its institutional-literary genealogy at St Albans.
Main Arguments
- The legends of Alban and Amphibalus are products of St Albans Abbey : Aston shows how the earliest brief notices (Gildas, Bede) were expanded by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who inadvertently created Amphibalus through misreading, and then by William of St Albans and Matthew Paris, who deliberately amplified the legends. This process demonstrates institutional invention serving monastic prestige and pilgrimage economy (pp. 189–196).
- These saints were never truly “popular” cult figures : Unlike Catherine of Alexandria or Nicholas, Alban and Amphibalus were not patrons of guilds or widely venerated. Their dedications were largely confined to the Abbey and its dependencies. This underlines their status as local, institutional constructs rather than organic cults (p. 194).
- The inclusion of Alban and Amphibalus in the Cooke MS points to a St Albans provenance : Given the saints’ confinement to the Abbey’s literary-historical sphere, Aston concludes that the Cooke MS likely originated in, or was closely connected with, the Abbey. He suggests that the MS functioned as a utilitarian “official” document, preserved in a library until the Dissolution (pp. 195–196).
Strengths of the Approach
- Rigour/Originality : Aston provides a comprehensive reconstruction of the Alban-Amphibalus tradition, distinguishing successive textual layers from Gildas to Lydgate. This diachronic mapping is original in its application to the Masonic Cooke MS (p. 189 ff.).
- Methodological Contribution : By situating the Cooke references within a precise institutional-literary context, Aston moves beyond antiquarian collation to demonstrate how monastic historiography shaped the content of early Masonic texts.
- Clarity of Argumentation : The article is carefully structured, each step in the Alban-Amphibalus legend illustrated with textual witnesses and critical commentary. The conclusion is firmly tied to the evidence traced through the narrative tradition.
Limitations and Potential Biases
- Limitation 1 : The argument relies exclusively on literary and historiographical sources; the absence of codicological or material corroboration weakens the solidity of the provenance and functional conclusions drawn from the texts alone.
- Limitation 2 : The localisation to St Albans rests chiefly on the concentration of the Alban–Amphibalus tradition within that institutional milieu; alternative transmission routes are not documented in the article, which narrows the explanatory scope of the claim.
- Blind spot : Although palaeographical considerations are noted, the article does not explicitly separate the date of the Cooke copy from the earlier dates of the traditions embedded within it; this omission risks confusion between the dating of the support and that of the textual content, a distinction essential when assessing copied materials.
Critical Conclusion
Aston’s article offers a decisive and well-documented contribution to the study of the Cooke MS by demonstrating the localised, monastic origins of its Alban-Amphibalus references. His reconstruction of the legend’s development highlights the ways in which medieval historiography, invention, and institutional interests shaped the textual environment from which early Masonic manuscripts emerged. The study’s chief strength lies in exposing the literary and institutional mechanics of hagiographic accretion, though its heavy reliance on St Albans as an explanatory locus may narrow alternative perspectives. Ultimately, Aston legitimises the view that the Cooke MS is best understood not in isolation, but as a product of medieval monastic textual economies. His conclusion—“not St. Alban, but St. Albans”—remains a memorable and enduring formulation.