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Figural narrative in Cynewulf's Juliana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Joseph Wittig
Joseph Wittig
Affiliation:
The University of North Carolina
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Extract

Old English saints' lives, as a group, have not generated a great deal of critical enthusiasm; and Cynewulf's Juliana has often been regarded as the worst of a bad lot. One of the poem's recent editors sees in it a ‘uniformity verging on monotony’ and finds it ‘unrelieved by any emotional or rhetorical emphasis or by any other gradations in tone’. While critics concede that all Cynewulf's signed poems have a smooth texture and contain ‘fine passages’, they regard Juliana as something of an embarrassment and generally assign it to the poet's adolescence – or senescence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 4 , December 1975 , pp. 37 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

page 37 note 1 Juliana, ed. Rosemary, Woolf (London, 1955), p. 17.Google Scholar

page 37 note 2 Ibid. p. 19; Wolpers, Theodor, Die englische Heiligenlegende des Mittelalters (Tübingen, 1964), p. 124CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wrenn, C. L., A Study of Old English Literature (London, 1967), p. 125.Google Scholar

page 37 note 3 Rosemary, Woolf, ‘Saints' Lives’, Continuations and Beginnings: Studies in Old English Literature, ed. Stanley, B. G. (London, 1966), pp. 40–5.Google Scholar

page 37 note 4 Delehaye, Hippolyte, Les Légendes Hagiographiques, 4th ed. (Brussels, 1955), p. 23; cf. pp. 88–9.Google Scholar

page 37 note 5 Woolf, ‘Saints' Lives’, p. 45.

page 38 note 1 Erich, Auerbach, Scenes from the Drama of European Literature (New York, 1959), ‘Figura’, trans. Ralph, Manheim, p. 53.Google Scholar

page 38 note 2 ‘The analogism that reaches into every sphere of medieval thought is closely bound up with the figural structure; in the interpretation of the Trinity that extends roughly from Augustine's De Trinitate to St Thomas 1, q. 45, art. 7, man himself, as the image of God, takes on the character of a figura Trinitatis’ (Auerbach, ‘Figura’, pp. 61–2). The usefulness of the term figura for the following discussion is that it both suggests the scriptural model for comparing Juliana to Christ or his church and reminds one that each member of the relationship, and indeed the relationship itself, was regarded as actual and ontologically valid; cf. Elizabeth, Salter, ‘Medieval Poetry and the Figural View of Reality’, Proc. of the Brit. Acad. 54 (1968), 73–92Google Scholar. ‘Allegory’, on the other hand, often connotes the relationship between a mere fiction and its ‘meaning’, or suggests the more whimsical varieties of Philonic exegesis. Charity, A. C. has recently pointed out that figural validity was also claimed for what is usually called the tropological level (Events and Their Afterlife (Cambridge, 1966), pp. 152–3 and passim)Google Scholar. He has also shown that figural thinking was very much utilized in relating the events of Christian times back to those of the New Testament (ibid. pp. 150–2 and passim).

page 39 note 1 Greenfield, Stanley B., A Critical History of Old English Literature (New York, 1965), p. 111Google Scholar; Woolf, Juliana, p. 15; and Wolpers, Heiligenlegende, pp. 122–3.

page 39 note 2 The text quoted is that of The Exeter Book, ed. George Philip, Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk, Dobbie, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York, 1936), 113–33.Google Scholar

page 39 note 3 Miss Woolf calls attention to this as ‘a basic proposition of the saint's life’ (‘Saints' Lives’, p. 41). It is found, e.g., in Ælfric's ‘Life of Eugenia’ (Ælfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, Walter W., Early Eng. Text Soc. o.s. 76, 82, 94 and 114 (London, 1881–1900; repr. in 2 vols., 1966), 1, 26).Google Scholar

page 39 note 4 Wilhelm, Kamlah, Apokalypse and Geschichtstheologie (Berlin, 1935), p. 11Google Scholar. For Augustine's formulation of these two Tychonian canons, see De Doctrina Christiana 111.31 and 37. On the widespread knowledge of the canons, see Kamlah, pp. 10–11.

page 39 note 5 See, e.g., Matthew xxiv.1–12, Mark xiii. 1–13 and Luke xxi. 9–19.

page 39 note 6 E.g., Matthew x. 16–22, 26–32 and 34–42; Luke xii. 1–8; and John xv. 17–25.

page 39 note 7 The passages cited in the two preceding notes were all gospel pericopes for the common of martyrs. From the Apocalypse, the following passages were pericopes for the first reading: iv.1–7 and 9–12, vi. 7–9 and 17 and vii.13–17. Since Juliana's was not a feast with proper peri-copes, these had to be selected from those in the commune sanctorum. Although Wolpers simply consults the Missale Romanum for evidence of ninth-century liturgy (Heiligenlegende, pp. 120–1), the Missale alone does not seem to be a reliable guide for the period. Cyrille, Vogel (Introduction aux Sources de l'Histoire du Culte Chrétien au Moyen Âge (Spoleto, 1965), p. 321)Google Scholar points out that ‘l’uniformité des livres liturgiques est inconnue de l'Église ancienne et de celle du moyen âge’ and emphasizes that ‘chaque évêque…est libre de créer le formulaire et d'ordonner les lectures’. Thus, while it is agreed that the English liturgy was ‘Roman’, this ought not be taken to imply modern uniformity. Klaus, Gamber (‘Die kampanische Lektionsordnung’, Sacris Erudiri 13(1962), 326–52)Google Scholar edits the pericopes of the Lindisfarne Gospels type and discusses their relationship to a continental model apparently brought to England by Hadrian, companion to Theodore (see Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica iv. i). For related manuscripts see Gamber, , Codices Liturgici Latini Antiquiores (Freiburg, 1963)Google Scholar, nos. 401 and 405–7. The pseudo-Bede homiliary seems to have been based on a lectionary of the Lindisfarne type; see Godu, G., ‘Évangiles’, Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne et do Liturgie, ed. Cabrol, F. and Leclercq, H.Google Scholar, col. 900. The pericopes of Durham, Cathedral Library, A. II. 16 and A. II. 17 are printed by Turner, C. H., The Oldest Manuscript of the Gospels (Oxford, 1931), p. 217Google Scholar. Guided chiefly by Vogel's bibliography and by his discussion of the medieval lectionaries, I have consulted editions of epistle and gospel pericopes representing the chief medieval types. Also useful for the pericopes of the commune are Frere, Walter Howard, Studies in the Early Roman Liturgy (Oxford, 1930–1935)Google Scholar II and III, and Barré, Henri, Les Homéliaires Carolingiens de l'École d'Auxerre (Vatican City, 1962), pp. 214–35Google Scholar. The edition of the Missale Romanum consulted was the Milan, 1474 (repr. Henry Bradshaw Soc. 17 (London, 1899)).

page 40 note 1 ‘Maidenhood is not usually spoken of in connection with marriage, but, nevertheless, there is a maidenhood of faith, which worships one true God, and will not adulterously bow to an idol. All the church, which consists in maidens and in youths, in husbands and in wives, it is all named as one maiden, as the apostle Paul said to the believing folk, “I have betrothed you to one man, that you may prepare a pure maiden for Christ.” Christ is the pure bridegroom, and all the Christian church is his bride, by which he daily begets human souls to his heavenly kingdom. The church is our mother and a pure maiden, because we are in her born again to God's hand, through faith and baptism’ (The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church: the First Part containing the Sermones Catholici or Homilies of Ælfric, ed. Benjamin, Thorpe (cited henceforward as Catholic Homilies), 2 vols. (London, 1844–1846) II, 567).Google Scholar Cf. Augustine, ‘Sermo 93 de Scripturis’, Migne, Patrologia Latina 38, col. 574. The latter homily was included in Alan of Farfa's collection (pt II, no. 105, for the common of virgins), described by Grégoire, Réginald, Les Homéliaires die Moyen Âge (Rome, 1966), p. 69.Google Scholar

page 41 note 1 Virginity isa symbol for the renunciation of the world's goods. For instance, scorning a wealthy marriage for the love of God is explained by Haymo of Auxerre as purchasing the ‘pearl of great price’: ‘Huius margaritae pulchritudinem, beatissima N., cuius hodie festivam celebramus festivitatem, multis divitiis datis comparavit, quando pro eius amore regni potentiam derelinquens, et thorum regalis matrimonii spernens, ad spontaneam paupertatem Se contulit. Unde sine dubio quia regis terrem conjugium contemsit, sponsa effecta est regis coelestis: et quae noluit cum terreno rege regnare in mundo, regnat cum Christo in caelo’ (PL 95, col. 1563, attributed to Paul the Deacon; Barré(Les Homéliaires Carolingiens, p. 160) lists it as belonging to Haymo's collection, Pt II, no. 54). Renouncing earthly riches is, in fact, a commonplace in homilies for the feast of virgins and martyrs. See Paul the Deacon's collection, no,. 114, 117, 119 and 123 (here and throughout cited according to the revised list given by Grégoire, Les Homéliaires, pp. 110–12); and see also Ælfric's Catholic Homilies on Lawrence (I, 420–2), Bartholomew (I, 458) and Simon and Jude (II, 484). When Cynewulf introduces the saint's scorning of riches and power (42b–4a, 100b–2a and 114a–16) he is surely adapting this symbolictradition.

page 41 note 2 See, e.g., Rabanus Maurus's homily no. 36, ‘In Natali Martyrum’ (PL 110, cols. 68–78), and Caesarius of Arles's homily no. 223, ‘In Natale Martyrum’ (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 104, 882–5). The currency of the latter is attested by its use in the homiliary of Alan of Farfa (pt II, no. 94) as well as in the Ottobeuren collection (no. 99); see Grégoire, Les Homéliaires, pp. 67 and 159.

page 42 note 1 ‘Ðone deað soðlice pe se Hælend gemedemode for mannum prowian, ðone ageaf Stephanus fyrmest manna pam Hælende’ (Catholic Homilies, 50)

page 42 note 2 Vogel, Introduction aux Sources, p. 276.

page 42 note 3 Ambrosius Autpertus, In Sancti Jobannis…Apocalypsim Libri Decem (Cologne, 1536), p. 14: ‘Nam cum omnis electorum ecclesia in sanctis praedicatoribus testimonium perhibeat de Christo, illi tamen principaliter dicuntur martyres, qui pro Christi testimonio mortem pertulerint. In co ergo Christus martyr fidelis extitit…’ Cf. Bede. Explanatio Apocalypsis (PL 93, col. 134) and pseudo-Alcuin Commentariorum in Apocalypsim Libri Quinque (ibid. 100, col. 1093).

page 42 note 4 ‘The life of the Lord, who was the first martyr, and who today fights and conquers in many martyrs, was as a stumbling block…Therefore, just as he glorified the Father with his own marvellous testimony in this world as well as in heaven, so his testimony is, in a way, consummated by the testimony of the Saints, as if the passion of the Lord and that of the servants were one’ (PL 4, cols. 965–6). This and all subsequent translations are my own.

page 43 note 1 Catholic Homilies I, 382.

page 43 note 2 The same phrase ‘on heanne beam’ is used later (309b) to describe the crucifixion of Andrew.

page 43 note 3 The ‘Acta Sanctae Julianae’ in Acta Sanctorum, February (II, 875–9), is the closest extant ‘source’ and seems sufficiently like the Old English version to have supplied Cynewulf with his material. Three Munich manuscripts not used by Bolland are referred to by Anton Schonbach in his edition of Arnold's German version of the story; see Mittheilungen aus altdeutschen Handschriften v (Vienna, 1882). One can gather from Schonbach's ‘Anmerkungen’ (pp. 75–84) that these versions diverge more widely from the Old English one than does the Bollandist text. Krapp and Dobbie conclude: ‘In the absence of any closer Latin version, the text in the Acta Sanctorum may be accepted, for all practical purposes, as Cynewulf's original’ (The Exeter Book, p. xxxvii) and Rosemary Woolf concurs: ‘The numerous verbal echoes of the Vita in Juliana make it seem probable that Cynewulf was following a Latin source, either identical with, or at least very similar to the text printed by Bolland’ (Juliana, p. 17). For general discussions of the poet's alterations of his ‘source’ see ibid. pp. 15–16, and Wolpers, Heiligenlegende, pp. 119–23. Subsequent references to the Latin Vita are by page number to the Acta Sanctorum.

page 43 note 4 ‘Tunc praefectus jussit eam capillis suspendi’ (Acta 875).

page 43 note 5 Ibid.

page 43 note 6 Ibid.

page 44 note 1 ‘I cannot declare, though I tarry for all of a long summer day, all the sorrow which I, early and late, treacherously caused, since the firmament was first raised up, and the course of the stars and the earth established, and the first of mankind, Adam and Eve. Them I deprived of life, and so taught them that they lost the love of the lord, eternal happiness, and bright paradise as well. That caused misery to both those parents, and to their offspring also, that darkest of man's works. Why should I count more of countless evils? I originated all the hateful crimes which ever occurred since the beginning of the world among mankind, the kin of men, the well-born upon earth. Nor was there any of them who dared lay hands on me so boldly as you now, holy one, nor was any man on earth this brave, through holy might, none of the patriarchs or prophets; although the God of hosts, the king of glory, revealed to them the spirit of wisdom, gift without measure, yet I could win through to them. There was not one of them who thus boldly bound me up with chains, overwhelmed me with punishment, before you, now, overcame my great power.’

page 44 note 2 Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader, rev. Hulbert, James R. (New York, 1935), p. 134, lines 15–16.Google Scholar For the Latin version of the harrowing see Evangelia Apocrypha, ed. Konstantin von, Tischendorf (Leipzig, 1876Google Scholar; repr. Hildesheim, 1966), pp. 389–416. All subsequent references to the Harrowing are to these editions, cited as ‘OE’ and ‘Latin’.

page 45 note 1 OE, p. 136, lines 14–15.

page 45 note 2 OE, p. 132, lines 16–18; Latin, pp. 395–6.

page 45 note 3 OE, pp. 135–6; Latin, pp. 399–400.

page 45 note 4 OE, p. 133, lines 20–3; Latin, p. 397.

page 45 note 5 ‘pu pe hæfst pæt leoht hyder geondsend… and beorhtnysse hæfst ablend pa synfullan pystro’ (OE, p. 135, lines 24–6; cf. Latin, p. 400). See also OE, p. 129, lines 3–7, and Latin, p. 391; and OE, p. 135, line 3, and Latin, p. 398.

page 45 note 6 ‘La ðu ealdor ealre forspyllednysse, and la ðu ord and fruma ealra yfela, and Ia ðu fæder ealra flymena, and la pu pe ealdor wære ealles deaðes, and la ordfruma ealre modignysse, for hwig gedyrstlæhtest pu… hæfst ealle pyne blysse forspylled’ (OE, p. 136, lines 18–25; cf. Latin, pp. 400–2). Christ then gives Satan into hell's power forever and the mockery of him, in the Harrowing as in the poem, is a jubilant farewell to his powers.

page 45 note 7 OE, p. 537, lines 3–5; Latin, p. 402.

page 45 note 8 ‘Belucað pa wælhreowan and pa ærenan gatu, and to foran on sceotað pa ysenan scyttelsas’ (OE, p. 133, lines 24–6); ‘Portas crudeles aereas et vectos fereos supponite…’ (Latin, p. 397).

page 46 note 1 See OE, pp. 135–6; Latin, pp. 399–400.

page 46 note 2 Another instance of a saint re-enacting Christ's harrowing can be found in Ælfric's ‘Passion of Bartholomew’. The holy man's presence in a temple dedicated to the idol-devil Ashtaroth renders the creature dumb. Forced by Bartholomew to declare himself to the king of the country, Ashtaroth cries out: ‘Geswicað, earme, geswicað eowra offrunga, ðelæs ðe ge wyrsan pinunge ðrowion ðonne ic. Ic eom gebunden mid fyrenum racenteagum fram Cristes englum, ðone ðe ða Iudeiscan on rode ahengon: wendon pæt se deað hine gehæftan mihte; he soðlice ðone deað oferswyðde, and urne ealdor mid fyrenum bendum gewrað, and on ðam ðriddan dæge sigefæst aras, and sealde his rode-tacen his apostolum, and tosende hi geond ealle ðeoda. An ðæra is her, ðe me gebundenne hylt’ (Catholic Homilies I, 462). Thus Bartholomew binds Ashtaroth by virtue of and in imitation of the harrowing.

page 46 note 3 Acta 876.

page 47 note 1 Ibid. 877.

page 47 note 2 Ibid.

page 47 note 3 The reference to the fall of Adam and Eve is in the Vita, but occurs earlier (ibid. 876). It is impossible to tell what Cynewulf did with this earlier passage since the Latin here corresponds to the manuscript leaf missing after line 288.

page 48 note 1 From a homily of Gregory on Luke XXI.9–29 (PL 76, col. 1259) which is included in the homiliary of Paul the Deacon as no. 116 for the common of martyrs. The notion of the two martyrdoms was a commonplace. Cf. Paul the Deacon's homilies for the feasts of martyrs nos. 117 (from Maximus of Turin, PL cols. 429–30) and 123 (from Gregory, PL 76, cols. 1115–16); see also Ælfric's Catholic Homilies II, 536, and ‘Sermo de Memoria Sanctorum’, Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat I, 352. (On the likelihood that Ælfric intended the latter piece as an introduction to the Lives of Saints as a whole, see P. A. M. Clemoes, ‘The Chronology of Ælfric's Works’, The Anglo-Saxons. Studies in some Aspects of their History and Culture presented to Bruce Dickins, ed. Peter Clemoes (London, 1959), p. 222.) Or see the commentaries on Apocalypse xi.3 where the ‘two witnesses’ are regularly glossed as interior and exterior martyrdom. So Haymo, PL 117, COl. 1070; pseudo-Alcuin, PL 100, col. 1147; and Ambrosius Autpertus, In Apocalypsim, p. 205. The same notion probably underlies The Dream of the Rood 112–18, where he who ‘for Dryhtnes naman deaðes wolde / biteres onbyrigan’ is paralleled with him who ‘in breostum bereð beacna selest’.

page 49 note 1 ‘For Neroes, Diocletians, Deciuses and Maximians will not always rage; but the devil never ceases to attack the soldiers of Christ… when the tyrant says, ‘Deny Christ, and sacrifice to Jove, and be our friend – or die”, then often the tongue denies, though the heart within protests, and the hand offers incense, though the soul adores Christ internally. And in spite of this being a most serious sin, nevertheless the fickleness of human nature alleviates somewhat the guilt of this impiety. But then, Satan speaks to you in the voice of the tyrant, and what does he say but the same thing addressed to your concupiscence: “Deny Christ and be rich; sacrifice to Mammon and renounce Christ… amuse your eyes… make money”’(PL 4, cols. 971 and 975–6).

page 49 note 2 Les Légendes Hagiographiques, p. 89; Wolpers (Heiligenlegende, p. 35) tends to accept this explanation, or at least rests content when he can explain something as having a generally ‘homiletic’ intent.

page 50 note 1 See, e.g., the pseudo-Bede homilies, PL 94, cols. 457–65; the collection is neither English nor eighth-century, but the homilies are from Bede's gospel commentaries, as is pointed out by Jean Leclercq, ‘Le III Livre des Homélies de Bede le Vénérable’, Recherches de Théologie Ancienne et Médiévale 14 (1947), 211–18. Or see the homilies collected by Paul the Deacon (Grégoire, Les Homéliaires, pp. 110–12) and Ælfric's ‘Sermo de Memoria Sanctorum’, Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, 1, 350.

page 50 note 2 See Rhabanus Maurus, no. 36 (PL 110, col. 68) and the pseudo-Bede homily no. 73 (PL 94, col. 458).

page 50 note 3 No. 74 (PL 95, col. 1540). This sermon is listed neither by Grégoire nor by Barré. The PL attribution suggests that it is ultimately from the Chrysostomus Latinus; I have been unable to trace it further.

page 50 note 4 ‘Sapiential Structure and Figural Narrative in the Old English Elene’, Traditio 27 (1971), 165–9.Google Scholar

page 50 note 5 ‘Quod [the suffering described in the verse of the Gospel] primitiva quidem Ecclesia persecutionis tempore historialiter agebat; sed ea, quae nunc est Ecclesia, a Christo pace jam reddita, pia aemulatione spiritaliter repraesentat. Praeteritos igitur parturitionis ejus dolores, in vigiliis sanctorum, jejuniis et afflictione carnis imitamur: sequentem vero ejus jam enixae alacritatem, ipsius jucunditate festivitatis aemulamur’ (Liber de Divinis Officiis, PL 101, col. 1215). Cf. Alcuin's Commentarius in Sancti Ioannis Evangelium (PL 100, cols. 955–6).

page 51 note 1 Bede, Explanatio Apocalypsis (PL 93, col. 168); cf. pseudo-Alcuin, In Apocalypsim (PL 100, cols. 1152–3) and Haymo, In Apocalypsim (PL 117, col. 1083).

page 51 note 2 ‘[the devil] persecuted the woman, who brought forth a son, that is, a strong people, such as were the holy martyrs, who were more easily slain than they were separated from God… after the coming of the son of God, she was attacked very sharply, and the cunning one busied himself with the argument of persecution: crucifying some in their members, like Peter; striking some down with stones, like Stephen; consuming some by fire, like Lawrence; others he gave over to serpents, some he tore with claws, some he cast into the sea; and he caused similar things to happen through various instruments’ (PL 117, col. 1089). Elsewhere (on Apocalypse xI.7) Haymo applies a series of tortures to the church as a whole: ‘Faciet autem contra Dei testes bellum, et corporale et spirituale, exhibebit cuncta quae in praecedentibus martyribus sunt adimpleta, id eat virgas, fustes, plumbatas, candentes ferri laminas, ungulas ferreas, bestias, ignes, et carceres, et si qua sunt similia tormentorum genera’ (ibid. col. 1073).

page 52 note 1 ‘But perhaps you will ask whether this edifice consists of stones or timbers or iron. No, Christ says; for it is not a tangible edifice. If it were, it would be dissolved by time. But neither demons nor any other creature can conquer the profession of piety. The martyrs testified, whose sides were rent, but the faith was not broken. A new stuff, this! The wall is dug up, and the treasure not carried off. Flesh is torn and the faith is not broken. Such indeed is the strength of the martyrs’ (‘Paul the Deacon’, no. 74, PL 95, col. 1541; see above, p. 50, n. 3).

page 52 note 2 In Apocalypsim, p. 209, commenting on Apocalypse xi. 7; cf. Haymo, PL 117, col. 1073. It might also be noted that Juliana's speeches, which continually counter the threats and promises of her father and Heliseus with references to God's controlling power, are paralleled in homilies. Compare, e.g., Juliana IIIb–13a with ‘Ego [qui mitto vos sicut oves…] sum qui coelum extendi, qui terrani fundavi, qui mare infrenavi…’ (PL 95, col. 1539).

page 53 note 1 Acta 877–8.

page 53 note 2 See Rhabanus Maurus, no. 36 (PL 110, col. 69), and Paul the Deacon for the feasts of martyrs, nos. 112 (from Gregory's homily no. 37, ‘In Evangelium’, PL 76, col. 1277), 116 (from Gregory's homily no. 35, PL 76, cols. 1263–4) and 118 (from Gregory's homily no. 32, ‘De Diversis’, PL 76, cols. 1234–5).

page 53 note 3 Juliana's wisdom is conveyed negatively, but unmistakably. She is called foolish by her adversaries (96b–8, 120, 145, 192b–3 and 202a), is urged by them to be ‘wise’ (144–5 and 251b–2), but she rejects their judgements (134) and their errors (138–9); later the devil confesses to being the source of these errors (301a and 368). The events of the poem prove Juliana's apparent folly to be wisdom, her apparent stubbornness to be fidelity. All of these references to wisdom and folly are added by Cynewulf.

page 53 note 4 Studies in the Early Roman Liturgy III, 92.

page 53 note 5 The following passages were common pericopes: Proverbs III.1–9, III.13–20, VIII.22–35, and xv.2–4 and 6–9, and Wisdom IV.7–II and 14–15, V.16–20 and 22, VII.30 and VIII.1–4, and X.10–14.

page 53 note 6 On the church's preaching see, e.g., pseudo-Alcuin on Apocalypse xi.5 (PL 100, col. 1148), Haymo on Apocalypse xv.5 (PL 117, col. 1122) and Ambrosius Autpertus on the same verse (In Apocalypsim, p. 287). On the witness of the martyrs see, e.g., the pseudo-Bede homily no. 74 for the feast of one martyr (PL 94, col. 460).

page 54 note 1 ‘And [Wisdom] gave the reward of their labours to the just, and led them Out on a marvellous way; and she was a shelter to them by day, and a starry light by night; she led them across the Red Sea and brought them through deep waters. The wicked, however, she drowned in the sea, and she summoned them from the depth of the infernal regions. Therefore the just bear off the spoils of the impious; and they praised your holy name, Lord, and together they praised your victorious hand’ (Wisdom x.17–20). Cf. Wisdom v.21–3. Wisdom x.13–14 might incidentally bear on Juliana's victory in the dungeon: ‘[Sapientia] venditum iustum non dereliquit. Sed a peccatoribus liberavit eum; descenditque cum illo in foveam, et in vinculis non dereliquit illum…’. The fact that Wisdom v.16–20 and 22 and x.10–14 were pericopes for the common of saints would have drawn attention to these passages and their contexts.

page 55 note 2 Apocalypse xii.17 reads: ‘Et iratus est draco in mulierem: et abiit facere praelium cum reliquis de semine eius, qui custodiunt mandata Dei, et habent testimonium Iesu Christi.’ Bede comments: ‘Mandata Dei in fide Jesu Christi custodire, hoc est pugnare cum dracone, et ipsum provocare in praelium. Et gratias Deo, qui saevi draconis evacuavit incoeptus. Ecce enim, Dominum in came natum exstinguere molitus, ejus resurrectione frustratur. Post apostolis fiduciam docendi refringere laborans, quasi mulierem, id est, totam Ecclesiam de rebus humanis auferre satagebat. Sed et hoc frustra nisus passim nunc singulas fidelium impugnat aetates’ (Explanatio Apocalypsis, PL 93, col. 168).