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The Gender of the Church: the Female Image of Ecclesia in the Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Jo Spreadbury
Jo Spreadbury*
Affiliation:
Westcott House, Cambridge
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Extract

In a famous eucharistic vision, recorded in the Scivias, Hildegard of Bingen saw what she calls the ‘image of a woman’ (‘muliebris imago’) approaching the Cross so that she was sprinkled by the blood from Christ’s side. In the Eibingen miniature which accompanies this vision, the woman is shown not only sprinkled with Christ’s blood but catching it in a chalice. Below the Cross an altar bearing a chalice is shown and the same woman stands beside it, her arms outstretched in prayer. Hildegard says in the text that the woman ‘frequently approached’ the altar and there ‘devotedly offers her dowry, which is the body and blood of the Son of God’. The illustration shows nothing of the vested priest who is described in the text approaching the altar after the woman to celebrate the divine mysteries; but it appears that the woman herself is celebrating the mysteries of Christ’s passion which are recalled in the Eucharist and pictured around the altar. The interpretation of this vision says that the woman is Ecclesia, the Church, the Bride of Christ.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 34: Gender and Christian Religion , 1998 , pp. 93 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1998

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References

1 Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, trans. Columba Hart and Jane Bishop (New York, 1990), ii, vision 6, p. 237 (illus. p. 235).

2 See, e.g., Tromp, S., ‘Ecclesia sponsa virgo mater’, Gregorianum, 18 (1937), pp. 3–29 Google Scholar; Chavasse, Claude, The Bride of Christ, an Enquiry into the Nuptial Element in Early Christianity (London, 1939)Google Scholar; Plumpe, J. C., Mater Ecclesia. An Inquiry into the Concept of the Church as Mother in Early Christianity, Catholic University of America Studies in Christian Antiquity, 51 (Washington, DC, 1943)Google Scholar; Miiller, A., Ecclesia-Maria (Fribourg, 1951).Google Scholar

3 E.g. Eph. 1.22, 5.23; Col. 1.18, 24.

4 Lubac, H. de, Corpus mysticum. L’eucharistic et l’église au moyen âge: étude historique, Théologie, 3, 2nd edn (Paris, 1949), p. 94.Google Scholar

5 Tertullian, E.g., De anima, 43: Eve coming from Adam’s side is ‘a type of the Church, the true mother of all living’ (PL 2, col. 723). See S. Tromp, ‘De nativitate Ecclesiae ex corde Iesu in cruce’, Cregorianum, 13 (1932), pp. 489–527.Google Scholar

6 Augustine, E.g., In Iohannis evangelium tractatus, DC10: ‘the dead Christ’s side is pierced with a spear, that the sacraments may flow forth to form the Church’ (PL 35, col. 1463).Google Scholar

7 Expositio in Samuelem, I, v (PL 91, col. 514): ‘Et Ecclesia nunquam a Christo deserta … solemnibus missarum diebus ad immolandum ascendere, carnis eius et sanguinis in vino ac pane secum mysteria defert.’ See Schulte, P. Raphael, Die Messe ab Opfer der Kirche, Liturgiewissenschaftliche Quellen und Forschungen, 35 (Munster, 1959).Google Scholar

8 PL 91, col. 1016: ‘Dominus eidem Ecclesiae dicit, Quaccunque alligaveris super terram …’; PL 93, col. 163: ‘Data est Ecclesiae in Christo omnis potestas in coelo et in terra, clavibus ei ligandi atque solvendi dimissis.’

9 Epistola de corpore et sanguine domini (PL 120, cols 1352–3): ‘Christus et Ecclesia unum corpus. Itaque nec Christus sine Ecclesia pontifex in aeternum, nec Ecclesia sine Christo Deo Patri offertur.’

10 Strabo, Cf. Walafrid: ‘unum panem esse et sanguinem, quem universalis offert ecclesia’, cited in Schulte, Die Messe, p. 142 Google Scholar; Mozarabic liturgy; ‘Ecclesia ecce tua … voce imprecatur unica, et sacrificiorum oblata offert devotione cernua’, ibid., p. 55.

11 Schulte, Die Messe, p. 36.

12 Gertrud Schiller, Die Ikonographie der Christlichen Kunst, 5 vols in 6 (Gütersloh, 1966-91), 4.1, fig. 98. For ease of reference, most of my iconographie examples are taken from this one work, although I do not necessarily cite all her relevant illustrations.

13 Ibid., 2, figs 364–5, 367, 371–3 etc.; 4.1, figs 100–1, 107–11 etc

14 Schiller, Ikonographie, 4.1, figs 217–20.

15 Ibid., 4.1, figs 113, 116, 126, 129, 132–3, 135 etc.

16 D.23 C.25 (CIC, 1, col. 86): ‘Sacratas Deo feminas vel monachas sacra vasa vel sacratas pallas penes vos contingere, et incensum circa altana déferre, perlatum est ad apostolicam sedem; que omnia vituperatione et reprehensione plena esse, nulli recte sapientum dubium est Et ne pestis hec latius divulgetur, per omnes provincias abstergí citissime mandamus.’

17 D.i de cons, c.41 (CIC, 1, cols 1304–5): ‘In sancta apostolica sede statutum est, ut sacra vasa non ab alus, quam a sacratis Dominoque dicatis contrectentur hominibus. Ne pro talibus presumptionibus iranís Dominus plagam inponat populo suo, et hi etiam, qui non peccaverunt, pereant, quia perit iustus sepissime pro inpio.’ Note the gender distinction implicit in these last two examples between the ‘consecration’ of men and women: the participle sacratus is used of both, yet women are not thereby ‘qualified’ in the same way as men.

18 D.2 de cons, c.29 (CIC, 1, col. 1323): ‘Pervenit ad notitiam nostram, quod quidam presbiteri in tantum parvipendant divina misteria, ut laico aut feminae sacrum corpus

19 These illustrations to the proclamation sung when the Paschal candle was lit were clearly intended to be seen by the congregation. They are placed upside down in relation to the text so that they become visible as the deacon recites and the manuscript unrolls over the back of the lectern.

20 Myrtilla Avery, The Exultet Rolls of South Italy (Princeton, Nf, 1936), pi. LXIV (MS originally from Sorrento, c. 1105–18, now in the archives at Montecassino). This interpretation assumes either a late attestation of westward-facing celebration, or that Ecclesia is represented from the east during the prayer of consecration. C£ pi. XLV (also in Schiller, Ikonographie, 4.1, fig. 209), CXLDC, both late eleventh-century, where the altar is not shown and Ecclesia’s gesture is correspondingly less hieratic.

21 Avery, Exultet Rolb, pi. CXL (MS Vat. Lat. 9820, dated c. 981–7, from S. Vincenzo al Volturno, also in Schiller, Ikonographie, 4.1, fig. 208), CLXXXK (late eleventh-century from South Italy, now in the museum at Velletri). A late thirteenth-century roll does ‘revise’ this image to show a bearded man wearing a mitre (or perhaps a papal tiara) in place of the female figure (Avery, Exultet Rolls, pi. CLVIII).

22 See Guidati, E., Eva uni Maria, eine Antithèse ais BiUmotiv (Graz and Cologne, 1966).Google Scholar

23 Marie-Louise Therel, ‘La “femme à la coupe” dans les images inspirées de l’Apocalypse’, in Actes du 96e congrès national des società savantes (Toulouse, 1971), Section d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art. Archéologie occitane, tome 1, préhistoire et varia (Paris, 1976), pp. 373–94.

24 Ibid.; Schiller, Ikonographie, 5, figs 598–600, 610–13, 617–22, etc.

25 Cf. ibid., 4.1, figs m, 113, 227; 5, figs 600, 622, 625 etc. (N.b. fig. 624, where the prostitute is pictured on a stumbling donkey in the manner of Synagoga.)

26 Jean Danielou, From Shadows to Reality. Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers, trans. Hibberd, W. (London, 1960), pp. 244–60.Google Scholar

27 Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam, vi, 21 (PL 15, col. 1674): ‘[Ecclesia] merito speciem accipit peccatricis, quia Christus quoque formam peccatoribus accepit.’

28 Adversus Catharos et Valdenses, ed. T. Ricchini (Rome, 1743), V, i-ii, pp. 399–401.

29 See Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay, Hystoria Albigensis, Guebin, P. and Lyons, P., eds, 3 vols (Paris, 1926–39), I, 12, p. 12 Google Scholar, for a juxtaposition of these two concerns.

30 See Sauerland, H. V. and Haseloff, A., Der Psalter Erzbischof Egberts von Trier (finer, 1901), pp. 179–84 Google Scholar.

31 Friedlander, M. J. on Quentin Massys’ Antwerp Magdalen: Die altniederlandische Malerei, 14 vols (Berlin, 1924-37), 7, p. 35 Google Scholar (fig. 61, pi. XXXIII).

32 Ibid., 7, fig. 87, p). LXI. Note the similarity in posture and background between this painting and the artist’s full-length portrait of the risen Christ in the Johnson collection in Philadelphia (ibid., 7, fig. 95, pi. LXIV).

33 I have only seen this reproduced in the Warburg Institute photographic collection, but it is described by Passavant, J. D., Le peintre-graveur, 6 vols (Leipzig, 1860-4)Google Scholar, 4. p. 135. no. 14. Passavant, however, does not mention the presence of the host in the Magdalen’s chalice. A twelfth-century Vita, echoing a sermon of Gregory the Great, describes in sacramental imagery how the Magdalen, as apostola apostolorum, compensated for the guilt of Eve: Then with a poisoned cup Eve inebriated a man in paradise; now the Magdalen gives the chalice of eternal life to the apostles to drink’ (PL 106, col. 1475; wrongly attributed to Hrabanus Maurus).

34 See J. de Lapparent, Sainte Barbe (Paris, 1926); and for the literary sources of this image Baudouin de Gaiffier, ‘Le triptyque du Maître de la Légende de Sainte Barbe, sources littéraires de l’iconographie’, Revue belge d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art, 28 (1959), pp. 3–23.

35 Raggi, A. M, ‘Odilia’, Bibliotheca Sanctorum, 13 vols (Rome, 1961-70), 9, cols 1110–16.Google Scholar

36 Meiss, Millard, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (Princeton, NJ, 1951), pp. 105–6 Google Scholar.

37 Noffke, E.g. Suzanne, The Letters of Catherine of Siena, Volume 1 (New York, 1988), letter 2, p. 42 Google Scholar.

38 Bynum, Caroline Walker, Holy Feast and Holy Fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1987), esp. pp. 227–37 Google Scholar.

39 Jungman, Joseph A., The Mass of the Roman Rite: its Origins and Development, trans. Francis A. Brunner, 2 vols (New York, 1951-5), 2, pp. 381–6, 412–14.Google Scholar

40 Vita B. Idae Lewensis, ch. 2, paras 19–20, ActaSS, Oct., 13, pp. 113–14. After this experience Ida is said to have written verse in the vernacular extolling spiritual communion and the ‘cup’ which God gives himself, to the detriment of the ‘pocula quae tradunt gentes Christi’.

41 Thomas of Cantimpré, Vita S. Lutgardis, ii, I: ActaSS, June, 4, p. 193.

42 Angela of Foligno, Le Livre de l’expérience des vrais fidèles: texte latin publié d’après le manuscrit d’Assise, ed. and trans. M.-J. Ferré and L Baudry (Paris, 1927), para. 17, p. 16 and para. 151, p. 326.

43 E.g. Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast, passim.

44 Hadewijch: the Complete Works, trans. Columba Hart (New York, 1980), vision I, para. 177, p. 266; cf. vision 7, paras 57, 64, p. 281.

45 Gertrude, The Herald of God’s Loving-Kindness, Books One and Two, trans. A. Barratt (Kalamazoo, MI, 1991), ii, 4, para. 3, p. no. Her devotional focus on images of the crucifixion is shown by her later experience of being pierced by a shaft of love ‘like a ray of the sun’ which issued from ‘the side of the crucified Christ painted on the page’ of a book she kept in her stall in choir: ibid., ii, 5, para. 2, p. 113.

46 Ibid., i, 14, para. 4, p. 83.

47 Sanctae Mechtildis virginis ordinis sancii Benedicti liber specialis gratiae (Paris, 1877), i, 1, pp. 7–10.

48 Vita S. Julianae Comeliensi, ii, 9, para. 54: ActaSS, April, I, p. 475.

49 Vita Ven. Idae Lovaniensi, iii, 1: ActaSS, April, 2, p. 183. Medieval concelebration generally assumed a principal celebrant assisted by the other priests in this manner: Jungmann, Mass of the Roman Rite, r, pp. 195–9. The phrase used of Ida’s position in relation to the priest, ‘stans retro secus pedes illius’, is that used by Luke (738) of the woman who anointed Jesus, who was identified with Mary Magdalen in medieval thought. This usage implies that the dinner at the house of the Pharisee described by Luke had sacramental associations for Ida’s biographer, with the Magdalen, like Ida, approaching Christ at the (altar) table. Such associations had been notably highlighted by Paulinus of Nola, Epistola iv ad Severum: PL 61, col. 278.

50 Schiller, Ikonographie, 3, fig. 491. See also Avery, ExuUet Rolh, plates cited above nn. 18–19.

51 Vita Benevenutae, c.6, para. 51: ActaSS, Oct., 13, p. 163; Mechtild of Hackeborn, Liber specialis gratiae, i, 7, p. 96.

52 This is the subject of my doctoral research: ‘Gloriosa praedicatrix. the origins, development and influence of the medieval legends about St Mary Magdalen as preacher and apostle’ (University of London, Ph. D. thesis, 1998).

53 Sec Caroline Walker Bynam, Jesus as Mother, Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley, CA, 1981), pp. 110–69; eadem, Fragmentation and Redemption (Berkeley, CA, 1991), pp. 165–6, 177–8. Ann Astell, W., The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1990), p. 96 Google Scholar, notes St Bernard’s ‘concern to feminize his auditors, to lead them into a personal identification with the Sponsa’.

54 Although it can be argued that this prohibition refers only to married women (rather than virgins or widows) who are ‘appointed to bear children and diligently nurture them’: Hildegard, Scivias, ii, vision 6, para. 76, p. 278.

55 BL, MS Arundel 44, fol. 94r.