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God's presence through grace as the theme of Cynewulf's Christ II and the relationship of this theme to Christ I and Christ III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Colin Chase
Colin Chase
Affiliation:
The University of Toronto
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Extract

Cynewulf's dependence on Gregory the Great's Ascension Day homily for the structure and much of the subject matter of Christ II has been acknowledged since 1853. After commenting in some detail on the gospel text for the day (Mark xvi. 14–20) Gregory devotes the final third of his homily to more general reflections – ‘ut aliquid de ipsa tantae solemnitatis consideratione dicamus’ – on the theme of the elevation of human nature in the Lord's ascension: ‘Ascendente vero Domino, est humanitas exaltata.’ Though Cynewulf takes his lead from these general reflections of Gregory at every point, a comparison of poem and homily shows that in doing so he substitutes his own theme of God's continuing presence with man since the ascension in his gifts of grace. This article concerns this thematic change and its implications for the relationship of Christ II to Christ I and Christ III.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 3 , December 1974 , pp. 87 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

page 87 note 1 In Evangelia XXIX, Migne, Patrologia Latina 76, cols. 1213–19.

page 87 note 2 Dietrich, Friedrich, ‘Cynevulfs Crist’, ZDA 9 (1853), 204;Google ScholarCook, Albert S. provides a detailed analysis of the relation of the poem to the homily, The Christ of Cynewulf, 2nd ed. (Boston, 1909; repr. with preface by John C. Pope, Hamden, Connecticut, 1964), pp. 115–16.Google Scholar Cook's edition has the most complete commentary. The text quoted in this article is that of The Exeter Book, ed. Krapp, George Philip and Van Kirk Dobbie, Elliott, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York, 1936), 15–27.Google Scholar

page 87 note 3 ‘To say something about the very thought of so great a feast’ (PL 76, col. 1218).

page 87 note 4 ‘But when the Lord ascended, humanity was exalted’ (ibid.).

page 87 note 5 I wish to express my thanks to Professor P. A. M. Clemoes and Professor John F. Leyerle for their care in helping me to prepare this article.

page 87 note 6 ‘Why is it … if not because there was a great feast day for the angels then?’ (ibid.).

page 88 note 1 ‘…when God as man penetrated heaven. Because at the Lord's birth the divinity appeared lowered; but at the Lord's ascension mankind was raised high. For white clothes suit exaltation more than humiliation’ (ibid.).

page 88 note 2 As Cook pointed Out (Christ, pp. 116–18), this speech is based on part of Bede's Ascension Day hymn, which is to some extent modelled on (Vulgate) ps. xxiii. 7 and 10; though there is a leaf missing from the Exeter Book just prior to the speech quoted (following frætwum 556b), the general character of the celebration is clear. See Pope, J. C., ‘The Lacuna in the Text of Cynewulf's Ascension (Christ II, 556b)’, Studies in Language, Literature and Culture of the Middle Ages and Later, ed. Atwood, E. B. and Hill, A. A. (Austin, Texas, 1969), pp. 210–19.Google Scholar

page 89 note 1 Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Klaeber, Fr., 3rd ed. (Boston, 1950).Google Scholar

page 89 note 2 For evidence that Cynewuif wrote in the ninth century, see Sisam, Kenneth, ‘Cynewuif and his Poetry’, Proc. of the Brit. Acad. 18 (1932), 303–8.Google Scholar

page 89 note 3 The Parker Chronicle, ed. Smith, A. H. (London, 1951), p. 33,.Google Scholar s.a. 878. Between the reigns of Alfred and Æthelred the concept of frið was defined in increasing detail, ordinarily including the relinquishment of hostilities and rights of revenge, the giving of royal gifts, special rights of royal protection for any party to the peace (friðmann) and specific penalties for those breaking the terms of the peace. Each of these elements is present in the poem. See Die Gesetze der Angelsacbsen, ed. Liebermann, F. (Halle, 1903–1916; repr. Aalen, 1960)Google Scholar I, 126–35 (on Alfred) and 220–4 (on Æthe1red).

page 89 note 4 On the custom of wearing white garments and a linen fillet (chrisrnale) until the Sunday after baptism (crismlising), see Venerabilis Baedae Opera Hislorica, ed. Plummer, C. (Oxford, 1896) 11, 280–1.Google Scholar

page 90 note 1 Clemoes, Peter (‘Cynewulf's Image of the Ascension’, England Before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Clemoes, Peter and Hughes, Kathleen (Cambridge, 1971), p. 295, n. 4)Google Scholar comments on the opening passage and on several others to show the way in which ‘Cynewulf uses the ideas he derives from Gregory as starting-points for imagistic writing throughout the poem’. In developing his images Cynewulf radically alters their significance.

page 90 note 2 ‘And behold I am with you all days even to the end of time.’

page 90 note 3 ‘Let us flee earthly desires, let nothing in the lower regions delight us, who have a father in the heavens’ (PL 76, col. 1219).

page 91 note 1 ‘But on this feast day, dearly beloved brethren, we ought chiefly to reflect that today the decree of our condemnation has been wiped out, the Sentence of our destruction commuted. For that nature to whom it was said: “You are earth and into the earth you will go”, has today gone to heaven’ (ibid. col. 1218). Gregory quotes from the Old Latin Genesis. See Vetus Latina: Die Reste der Altlateinischen Bibel II: Genesis, ed Fischer, B. (Freisburg, 1951–1954), p. 74.Google Scholar

page 91 note 2 ‘Maledicta terra in opere tuo: in laboribus comede ex ea cunctis diebus vitae tuae. Spinas et tribulos germinabit tibi, et comedes herbam terrae. In sudore uultus tui vesceris pane, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es; quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris’ (Genesis III. 17–19).

page 92 note 1 ‘On account of this same raising up of our flesh blessed Job figuratively calls the Lord a bird’ (PL 76, col. 1218).

page 92 note 2 ‘For the Lord is rightly called a bird since he flew a fleshly body to the heavens’ (ibid.).

page 92 note 3 See the discussion of this passage by Clemoes, PeterRhythm and Cosmic Order in Old English Christian Literature, an Inaugural Lecture (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

page 92 note 4 ‘Ascending on high he led captivity captive, gave gifts to men’ (PL 76, col. 1218).

page 92 note 5 ‘Our corruption he absorbed by the power of his incorruption’ (ibid.).

page 93 note 1 ‘Your magnificence is raised up above the heavens’; ‘God ascended in the midst of rejoicing, the Lord in the sound of the trumpet’ (ibid.).

page 93 note 2 Thirty-three and a half lines in Cynewulf's version, three and a half in Gregory's.

page 93 note 3 ‘Concerning this glory of his Ascension Habacuc also speaks: “the sun is raised up and the moon has stood in its rank”’ (PL 76, col. 1218). As before, Gregory quotes from the Old Latin (Habakkuk III. 4), based on the Septuagint version. See above, p. 91, n. 1.

page 94 note 1 ‘For until the Lord ascended to heaven, his holy church was completely afraid of the adversities of the world; but after she was strengthened by his ascension, she openly preached what she secretly believed. “The sun is raised up and the moon has stood in its rank”, because when the Lord sought heaven, his holy church increased in the authority of her preaching’ (PL 76, col. 1219).

page 95 note 1 ‘Behold he comes dancing on the mountains, leaping over the hills’ (ibid.).

page 95 note 2 ‘Beloved brethren, do you wish to know those leaps of his? From heaven he came into the womb, from the womb he came into the crib, from the crib he came onto the cross, from the cross he came into the tomb, from the tomb he went back to heaven’ (ibid.).

page 95 note 3 ‘Wherefore, beloved brethren, it behoves us to follow in our hearts where we believe he has ascended in the flesh’ (ibid.).

page 96 note 1 ‘Although your heart is still tossed about by the disturbances of [your] affairs, nevertheless put the anchor of your hope now in the eternal fatherland, fix your mind's direction on the true light’ (ibid.).

page 97 note 1 See Dietrich, , ‘Crist’, pp. 193–214Google Scholar, esp. 194 and 209; Moore, Samuel, ‘The Old English Christ: Is it a Unit?’, JEGP 14 (1915), 550–67, esp. 556ff.Google Scholar; and Mildenberger, Kenneth, ‘The Unity of Cynewulf's Christ in the Light of Iconography’, Speculum 23 (1948), 426–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar All these critics argue for unity among the poems but without adverting to Cynewulf's preoccupation with Christ's presence with mankind after his physical departure. Thus Dietrich's threefold coming includes Christ's arrival in heaven as the ‘advent’ depicted in Christ II and Moore adduces patristic references to the advent, ascension and Last Judgement to show that they were associated in the tradition. Mildenberger's iconographic evidence for the same interpretation is unconvincing: three of his seven examples are from a single Coptic monastery, Mary without the infant is taken three times to stand for the advent there and only one example from Anglo-Saxon England is adduced. A summary of the history of the controversy is available in Claes Schaar, Critical Studies in the Cynewulf Group (Lund, 1949), pp. 104–7.Google Scholar See also Smithson, George A., The Old English Christian Epic, Univ. of California Publ, in Mod. Philol. i, no. 4 (1909–1910), 303–400.Google Scholar

page 97 note 2 Ibid.Burke, James F. (’The Four “Comings of Christ” in Gonzalo de Berceo's Vida de Santa Oria’, Speculum 48 (1973), 294, n. 7)CrossRefGoogle Scholar cites many references to Christ's multiple comings from the twelfth century and later. Some distinguish between the last general judgement and the personal judgement at death, adding a fourth coming.

page 97 note 3 Burgert, Dom Edward, O.S.B., The Dependence of Part I of Cynewulf's Christ upon the Antiphonary (Washington, 1921), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

page 97 note 4 ‘Liber Sacramentorum’, ed Menard, H. in Opera Omnia Sancti Gregorii (Paris, 1705) iii, 1–616Google Scholar; repr. PL 78, cols. 25–582 (cited hereafter for convenience). The firmest dating is the manuscript written by ‘Rodradus’ who was ordained in 853 (PL 78, cols. 17–20). Menard believed the ‘Saint Eligius’ manuscript to have been earlier but gives no solid evidence (ibid. cols. 15'18). His statement that it is palaeographically very close to Rodradus makes it unlikely that it is later (ibid. cols. 15–16). His third manuscript, written by Abbot Ratoldus, is dated by his death in 986 (ibid. cols. 19–20). The fourth manuscript is probably later. Menard's notes (ibid. col. 435) show that the blessings cited here occur in all manuscripts without significant variation.

page 98 note 1 The Benedictional of Archbishop Robert, ed. Wilson, H. A., Henry Bradshaw Soc. 24 (London, 1903), 29–30.Google Scholar Wilson argues for a late-tenth-century dating (ibid. pp. xi–xiii), but the manuscript (Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale Y.6) is at present considered to date from the early eleventh century; see Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), pp. 447–8.Google Scholar

page 98 note 2 Wilson collated his text with a selected set of fourteen similar documents, most of them English and of about the same period or later, some of them earlier continental examples. Ten of these have the blessings without significant variation. See The Benedictional of Archbishop Robert, pp. 169–70.

page 98 note 3 E.g. ‘Et qui de aduentu redemptoris nostri secundum carnem deuota mente letamini in secundo cum in maiestate sua uenerit premiis aeternae uitae ditemini’ (‘And may you who rejoice with devoted heart over the coming of our redeemer according to the flesh, be enriched with the rewards of eternal life when he comes in his majesty in the second [coming]’; ibid. p. 29).

page 98 note 4 ‘First Sunday: “May God, the advent of whose only begotten son you both believe to have happened and expect to occur again, sanctify you by the illumination of the same [son's] coming and enrich you with his blessing. Amen.” Second Sunday: “May almighty God, whose past coming in the incarnation is believed and whose future coming for judgement is awaited, cleanse you from all infection of sin before he comes. Amen.” Third Sunday: “And may he who has made these days festive by the incarnation of his only-begotten son render you free of all adversities of the present and future life. Amen.” Fourth Sunday: “May God, who restored you through the grace of his previous coming and in the second has promised to give you his kingdom with the holy angels, sanctify you by the illumination of his advent. Amen”’ (ibid. pp. 29–30).

page 99 note 1 The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church: the First Part, Containing the Sermones Catholici or Homilies of if Ælfric, ed. Thorpe, Benjamin (London, 1844) 1, 600.Google Scholar

page 99 note 2 Philip, Brother Augustine (’The Exeter Scribe and the Unity of the Christ’, PMLA 55 (1940), 903–9)CrossRefGoogle Scholar examined the manuscript for evidence pertinent to the unity question. His conclusion that the scribe ‘reserved one set of symbols to designate the separate selections and used another set to show secondary parts within a given selection’ (p. 908) seems over-refined. Nine of the collection's 127 poems begin with the ornamented large initial and line of small capitals which introduce Christ II and Christ III (the beginning of Christ I is missing). The rest of the poems and the internal divisions of longer works begin with a small capital, the degree of ornamentation varying with the length of the succeeding poem or division. This practice is not consistent enough to tell us whether the scribe distinguished clearly between thtee poems developing closely related themes and one poem incorporating a variety of styles and conventions. See The Exeter Book of Old English Poetry (photographic facsimile) with in Introductory chapters by Chambers, R. W., Förster, Max and Flower, Robin (London, 1933).Google Scholar Current opinion generally rejects the idea that Christ I, Christ II and Christ III form a unified work. See, e.g., The Advent Lyrics of the Exeter Book, ed. Campbell, Jackson J. (Princeton, 1959), p. viii;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRosemary, Woolf, ’Review of Jackson J. Campbell, The Advent Lyrics of the Exeter Book’, Mæ 29 (1960), 125;Google ScholarGreenfield, Stanley B., A Critical History of Old English Literature (New York, 1965), p. 124;Google Scholar and Burlin, Robert B., The Old English Advent: a Typological Commentary (New Haven, 1968), p. 38.Google Scholar For the most part these critics offer unelaborated opinions reflecting the current consensus.

page 100 note 1 ‘Recent editions and critical commentary regarding Christ I are indicative of the poem's independent nature. See Burlin, Old English Advent; Campbell, Advent Lyrics;and Hill, Thomas D., ’Notes on the Imagery and Structure of the Old English Christ I’, N&Q 19 (1972), 84–9.Google Scholar The existence of two other Judgement Day poems in Old English shows the independent significance of that theme for the Anglo-Saxons.

page 100 note 2 Or about 200 lines if the leaf missing frætwum (556b) is taken into account; see above, p. 88, n. 2.

page 100 note 3 Centos (Gk ‘patchwork cloak’): this practice of stitching together verses or passages from well-known authors for one's own purposes went back to classical times. In Latin literature Vergil was most often used, and Proba's versification of the gospel made from Vergil's hexameters is one of the better known centos. A ninth-century example is a poem attributed to Waldram (‘Salomonis et Waldrammi Carmina’, ed. Karl Strecker, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae 4, 296–310), in which passages from the bible and from Boethius, Jerome and Gregory are spliced together for elegiac purposes. See Max, Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich, 1911) 1, 596–7.Google Scholar

page 101 note 1 The author of Christ I began with a series of liturgical antiphons, including four of the ‘Great O’ antiphons of the Christmas season and eight others from other liturgical sources; Cynewulf, as we have seen, exploited Gregory's twenty-ninth homily for his purposes; and the poet of Christ III relied very heavily on Bede's Judgement Day hymn, ‘Apparebit repentina dies magna Domini’. See Cook, Christ, pp. 71–3, 115–16 and 171–7.

page 101 note 2 Homilies of Ælfric: a Supplementary Collection, Early Eng. Text Soc. 259 and 260 (London, 1967–1968), II, 786–98.Google Scholar