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XII. —The Thirty Pieces of Silver.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

G.F. Hill
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Abstract

That the incident of the Betrayal of Christ for Thirty Pieces of Silver should have had an attraction for the mediaeval maker of legends, and that pieces professing to be the original coins received by Judas should have been treasured as relics, are hardly matters for surprise. There is no lack of literature on the legend which was woven round the story of the Thirty Pieces, and of late years two or three writers have devoted some attention to the supposed relics of the Betrayal. A comparison and analysis of the various forms of the legend have, however, not been instituted, so far as I have been able to discover. As to the relics, the material for study is only to be found in foreign periodicals and works not generally accessible. It seems worth while therefore to make some attempt to trace the development of the legend, and to collect the descriptions of the coins which were or are preserved in various sanctuaries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , 1905 , pp. 235 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1905

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References

page 235 note a I follow the text as given by Méril, E. du, Poesies Populaires Latines du Moyen-Age, 1847, p. 321. I may here record my thanks to Miss L. Eckenstein and Mr. J. A. Herbert for several references to literature and documents bearing on the subject of this legend.Google Scholar

page 236 note a If my version is prosy, confused, and disjointed, I think I am justified in saying that the original is hardly less so.

page 237 note a See the edition (Oxford, 1886) by Mr. E. A. W. Budge, who called my attention to this version of the legend. Assemani (Bibi. Orient. III. i. 317) says that the legend occurs frequently in Syriac MSS., but gives no details; and inquiries from several Syriac scholars have failed to confirm his statement.

page 237 note b Cf. Renan, E., in Journal Adatique, 1853, p. 467.Google Scholar

page 237 note c Bezold, C., die Schatzhöhle, 1883.Google Scholar

page 238 note a Renan, , op. cit. p. 457.Google Scholar

page 238 note b This passage is referred to in the Syriac “Passing of the Blessed Virgin” (Wright, W., Contr. to the Apocr. Lit. of the N. T. 1865).Google Scholar

page 238 note c The thirty pieces of silver, he says, were thirty pieces of silver according to the weight of the sanctuary (i.e. the sacred Jewish shekel of about 224 grains troy) and equivalent to 600 pieces according to the weight of our country (i.e. dirhems).

page 239 note a Tischendorf, , Ev. Apocr. 1876, p. 83.Google Scholar

page 239 note b Did this tradition originate in the name Sheba borne by one of the grandchildren of Abraham by Keturah? (Gen. xxv. 3.)

page 240 note a Ed. Deycks, F., Stuttgart Lit. Verein, 1851. Cp. the same critic's Ueber ältere Pilgerfahrten, 58 ff. He regards John of Hildesheim as the source of Ludolph; but the view taken in the text, and supported by Neumann inGoogle ScholarArchives del'Orient Latin, II. (1884), Doc. 313 ff, seems to be dictated by the chronological data. Ludolph's work has been translated for the Palestine Pilgrims Text Society (1895).Google Scholar

page 240 note b As Ludolph was in the Holy Land for some time, he may very possibly have gone to some Syriac sources.

page 241 note a The Latin version was first printed in Germany in 1477; reprinted in 1478, 1481, 1486, and 1514, and at Modena (as Legenda sanctorum trium regum) in 1490. A more or less critical edition was published by Köpke, E. from a Brandenburg MS. in Mittheil. aus d. Handschr. d. Sitterakad. zu Brandenburg, 1878.Google Scholar A text with very full apparatus criticus accompanies the edition of the English version in the Early English Text Society's publication, The Three Kings of Cologne, ed. by Horstmann, C. (1886), to which I may refer the reader for further details.Google Scholar

page 241 note a Doubtless, as Horstmann suggests, John's sources may have been largely fictitious; in any case he can hardly have known such Oriental sources except through some Latin history.

page 242 note a In the Modena edition scudati mutenes. The French écus with the mouton (Agnus Dei) are meant.

page 242 note b The garment, we have seen, is also associated with the coins hy Godfrey and Solomon. The object here appears to he to draw a parallel between the fashion in dress and the fashion in the coinage in respect of permanence.

page 242 note c Say 25s. of our money.

page 242 note d See Simrock, , die Legende von den heiligen drei Kb'nigen.Google Scholar

page 242 note e MS. Laud Misc. 622, fol. 65 (Bodleian Library). I have to thank Mr. A. E. Cowley for pro-curing me a copy of the whole of this portion of the MS. Sandys, W. (Christmas Carols, 1833, p. lxxxv.) notes the connection of the verses with the legend.Google Scholar

page 243 note a The MS. of John's work at Corpus Christi Coll. Cambridge has Bodewun. The English MSS. edited by Horstmann do not attempt to classify the shepherd.

page 243 note b Like Ludolph, and like the English translation (Horstmann, pp. 100, 101).

page 243 note c See his Evagatorium, i. 426 (ed. by Hassler, C. D. in Shittgart Lit. Vereiu, 1846–1849)Google Scholar. The Palestine Pilgrims Text Society have published the work in English (1892-3). The passage in question is translated by de Vogüe in Rev. des Deux Mondes, viii. (1875), 531Google Scholar f; see also Barbier de Montault in Rev. de V Art Chretien, N. S. iv. (1886), in an article to be referred to later.Google Scholar

page 243 note d Godolia, in Ludolph and in John of Hildesheim (chapter xi.), is the name of the kingdom; but John does not mention it in this connection.

page 244 note a The City of Jerusalem, part ii. in no. 8 of the Palestine Pilgrims Text Society's publications, P. 31. The date of this work appears to be between 1220 and 1229 A.D.

page 245 note a On the general subject of coins as relics I may refer to Babelon, E., Traité ties Mommies, i. 76Google Scholar f. An interesting case which has not been mentioned in this connection is the nummus perforatus lancea Sancti Mauricii Martyris which used to be at Canterbury Dart, J., History of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, 1726, App. xlvii.; from British Museum MS. Cotton Galba E. iv fol. 125 b, of the early fourteenth century). Any perforated coin with the head of a Roman Emperor would no doubt serve as a relic of the soldier saint who had refused to worship his imperial master.Google Scholar

page 245 note b Les Deniers de Judas dans la Tradition du Moyen Age in the Revue Numismatique, 1899, pp. 500–509.Google Scholar

page 245 note c Rev. de I'Art. Chrèt. N.S. iv. 214 f.

page 245 note d Villenoisy, F. de, Le Denier de Judas du Couvent des Capuchin d'Enghien (Enghien, 1900)Google Scholar; Perdrizet, P., Une Recherche à faire à Rosas in Revue des Études Anc. 1902. My thanks are due to both these writers for copies of their contributions.Google Scholar

page 247 note a Viaggio a Gerusalemme di Niccolò da Este, ed. by Ghinassi, G. in Collezione di Opere ined. o rare pubbl. per cura della B. Covvm. pe' Teeti di Lingua nelle Prov. dell' Emilia I. (Turin, 1861), p. 143.Google Scholar

page 247 note b The editor suggests that this -word is a mistake for agostaro (the gold coin issued by Frederick II.). But this was hardly in circulation in the fifteenth century, so that dal Campo would not be likely to use it as a measure of size.

page 247 note c Longnon, Bonnardot et, Le Saint Voyage de Jhérusalem du Seigneur d'Anglure (Soc. des anc. Textes français, 1878).Google Scholar

page 247 note d Op. cit. p. 9: “item, ung des deniers de saincte Helene envaissellé en plomb, sur lequel on fait les bullettes de Rodes qui sont de si grant vertu; et les fait on le jour du Grant Vendredi.” Cp. p. 94, note: “Item, en laidicte esglise de Saint Jehan nous fuit montrés ung dez denier d'ors l'amperise saincte Eslainne, qui est aissis en ung pomélz de laiton et soldez di plont, car aultrement ne se lait ledit denier asseoir ne solder. Sor lequelz denier on fait chescun ans plussour bullete de virge sire, c'est aissavoir le jour dou Saint Vanredi, en tant que on dit 1'office en l'esglise; lezquelle bullete porteet on plussour vertus belle et noble.” We shall see later on the bearing of these passag-es on our investigation. It may be noted that Cennino Cennini in his treatise on painting- has a chapter (188, p. 177 in Mrs. Herringham's translation) on “how to make impressions of santelene in wax or paste.” I do not know Milanesi's authority for the statement that santelena was a general name for a medal or coin bearing the image of a saint. More probably it meant just one of these bullettes de Rhodes.

page 248 note a Feyerabend, , Bewehrtes Reyssbuch (1659), 656, 666.Google Scholar

page 248 note b Quantitas est sicut blaphordorum crucis, which De Vogüé ingeniously translates “il y en a autant que de clous a la croix.” It is sometimes risky to guess at the meanings of words. Blaphordus or blaffardus is the German Blaffert or Plappert, a silver coin widely current in Germany and Switzerland in Fabri's time. A variety with a cross on it was called Kreuz-blaffert, blaphordus crucis.

page 248 note c Stabilimenta Rhodiorum Militum Sacri ordinis (1496), fol. d 1 verso.Google Scholar

page 249 note a See especially Montault, B. de, loc. cit. I have not been able to consult his Antiquites Chretiennes de Borne, in which the reliquary is photographed. M. de Mély gives a sketch.Google Scholar

page 249 note b Cp. Head, B. V., British Museum Catal. of Greek Coins, Garia, p. 241, no. 122.Google Scholar

page 249 note c Lyon, 1553, part ii. 10.

page 250 note a Matthew xxvii. 6. It is described in Rollin and Feuardent's Catalogue d'une Coll. de Medailles, Paris, 1864, p. 124, no. 1769, where it is wrongly called an octodrachm.Google Scholar

page 250 note b Cp. de Montatilt, p. 218, who quotes from a seventeenth-century inventory.

page 250 note c Italia Sacra (1719), t. iv. 27, 28.Google Scholar

page 250 note d See Delle antichita longobardico-milanesi illistr. con dissert, dai monad della congreg. cisterciese di Lombardia, iv. (1793), pp. 285Google Scholar, 286; and Floss, H. J., Dreikonigenluch (1864), p. 56.Google Scholar

page 250 note e Mr. W. H. St. John Hope confirms me in this particular.

page 252 note a a Published by Mély, M. de in Rev. Numism. 1901, p. 262 ff. M. de la Tour informs me that the piece is undoubtedly cast, not struck.Google Scholar

page 252 note b So much debased in style that many reproductions must have intervened, one would think, between the original and this.

page 253 note a Reliquary and Illustrated Archeeologist, x. (1904), 135.Google Scholar

page 253 note b M. de Villenoisy, by a curious reversion to the argument of Godfrey of Viterbo, suggests that the coins described by St. Matthew as τα τþιακομτα αþуνοια (triginta argenteos) were really gold pieces, on the ground that argentum, argenteus had become synonymous with “money,” without regard to the metal. This may be true of the collective noun το αþуνþιομ, but I do not think it can be proved of τα αþуνþια in the sense of separate pieces of money. The author of the Narratio of Joseph of A-rimathsea was, however, of M. Villenoisy's opinion; for Mr. Herbert calls my attention to the fact that according to this work (edited by Tischendorf, Evang. Apocr., 1853, p. 440, from a twelfth-century and other MSS.) the Jews bribed Judas with τþιακομτα αþуνþια Ξþνμιον Of course no argument can be based on evidence of this date.