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     . By Richard F. Johnson. . Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005. 67 pp of bibliography, appendices and
index + 107 pp, £45 (hbk).

COMMANDER OF the Heavenly Host, intercessor on behalf of humankind, guardian angel, and conveyor of souls to heaven: St. Michael, Archangel of the Lord, is
assigned numerous offices in the Judeo±Christian tradition. Richard F. Johnson's short book provides an examination of the establishment and diffusion of the legends
of St. Michael in medieval England by drawing on a wide range of narratives from biblical accounts to references in preaching manuals. Yet the central text for
Johnson's analysis is µ c  ¶ (BHL 5948), the hagiographic foundation myth of the Mount Gargano cultic site, which is printed and
translated in an appendix. The book has four appendices altogether: an annotated bibliographical list of (textual) references to St. Michael, a motif index, and an essay
on iconographical representations of the archangel in medieval England. All of these are helpful and interesting, and they underscore the usefulness of c
  

      as a brief and clearly structured overview of Archangel's role in medieval English texts.
While the first part of the book provides a historical survey of the genesis and migration of the legends of St Michael, the second part traces the development and
dissemination of legendary motifs associated with his µsacred biography¶ (4), the Mount Gargano foundation myth, in medieval England. Chapter one charts the
literary origins of the Archangel's legendary roles in the biblical and extra-biblical literature of the Old and New Testaments eras. St. Michael is only mentioned five
times in the scriptures, and in the New Testament he is restricted to acting in the past and the future due to the arrival of Christ. Johnson asserts that the representations
of St. Michael in these literatures µcan be seen as the principal quarry for early medieval English writers¶ (9). He argues that St. Michael's roles are nearly fully
developed in the early Hebrew literature and µgreatly expanded, both in number and authority¶ (19) later. Yet the archangel's principal functions remain µto battle
Satan, to be the advocate of God's chosen people, to rescue the souls of the faithful from the devil, and to lead the souls of the faithful to heaven¶ (4). In the apocryphal
writings of the New Testament era, he is also associated with the Virgin Mary, whose soul he conveys to Heaven, and in his capacity as archistrategos, he
accompanies Christ in his harrowing of hell and guides the Old Testament faithful into paradise.

The legends of St. Michael reached medieval England via the Near East, Italy, and France. Chapter two outlines the development of the Michaeline cult in the ancient
Near East and charts its subsequent migration west during the fourth and fifth centuries. Examining St. Michael's legendary apparitions, earthly interventions, and the
hagiographic foundation-myths of St. Michael's cultic sites (the Michaelion, Mount Gargano, Mont-Saint-Michel), Johnson shows how the cult of St. Michael
appropriated existing cultic sites and was indeed appropriated by regional political powers (Constantine, the Lombards, the Carolingians) in order to justify their
imperial ambitions. This aided the migration of the cult as well as well-travelled Irish missionaries who came to Northumbria and Mercia during the seventh century.

The representations of St. Michael in both biblical and extra-biblical literature as well as in his µhagiographic dossier¶ (5) provide the background for the following
chapters. Chapter three surveys vernacular versions of the hagiographic foundation-myth from Mount Gargano through the Old English, Anglo±Norman and Middle
English periods, yet the emphasis is clearly on the earliest texts. The main part of the chapter is devoted to Ælfric's homily for the feast of St. Michael (29.09.) and a
rather lengthy analysis of the verbal and structural correspondences between Ælfric's homily and the anonymous ninth-century Bickling homily XVI µTo Sanctæ
Michaheles mæssan¶. Johnson states that µdevotion to the archangel increased when the Normans conquered southern Italy and took possession of Mount Gargano¶
(63). Yet references to St. Michael and versions of the Garganic myth in Anglo±Norman only receive a valedictory nod in Johnson's study. Narratives of the Garganic
myth become the basis of most vernacular legends of St. Michael, Johnson asserts, yet some legendary accounts like       or the c  
  add other material, thus expanding the traditional agency of the angel. However, Johnson also illustrated the enormous µnormalising effect¶ (70) of Jacob
de Voraigne's  , which µwas the source for many of the details found in « later legends, and in many instances provided the structure and
organisation for their retelling¶ (66), for example in John Mirk's   and the anonymous c c  . Despite inspired expansions of St. Michael's
µsacred biography¶ (4) in medieval England, the archangel retained his principal roles as µguardian and defender of the faithful, as slayer of evil, and as benevolent
judge of all that is good¶ (70). It is to these that Johnson directs his attention in the last two chapters, which repeat many of the points made earlier on in the book and
draw often on the same sources. While chapter four examines St. Michael's role as guardian angel and conveyor of souls to heaven with an emphasis on 
 , narratives of the Assumption of the Virgin and the µDescensus ad inferos¶ from the  , chapter five explores St. Michael's roles in the
individual judgement and at the end of time according to English legend. These roles are both numerous and spectacular: St. Michael defeats Satan in battle, sounds
the trumpet to summon the dead to Judgement and supervises the weighing of their souls. Perhaps owing to the subject matter, chapter five is certainly the liveliest of
all. While Johnson's style is mercifully clear, jargon-free and readable, it can also be very repetitive. This is most obvious not only in the last two chapters but also in
the conclusion that repeats entire sentences from the introduction. Nevertheless, c
  
      offers a valuable, concise
overview of the representations of the archangel in the prose literature of the Anglo±Saxon, Anglo±Norman, and Middle English eras and will surely find its way on
the shelves of university libraries.

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