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The Child in the Tree: A Study of the Cosmological Tree in Christian Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
In the first of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets, ‘Burnt Norton,' appear the following lines:
- Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
- Round the corner. Through the first gate,
- Into our first world, shall we follow
- The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
- ……………
- Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
- Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Eliot returns to the image of the garden and the children in the last of this cycle, ‘Little Gidding‘:
- Through the unknown, remembered gate
- When the last of earth left to discover
- Is that which was the beginning;
- At the source of the longest river
- The voice of the hidden waterfall
- And the children in the apple-tree
- Not known, because not looked for
- But heard, half heard, in the stillness…
- All manner of thing shall be well
- When the tongues of flame are in-folded
- Into the crowned knot of fire
- And the fire and the rose are one.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Fordham University Press
References
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128 Jeanroy, A., ‘La Passion Nostre Dame et le Pèlerinage de l’Ame,’ Romania 36 (1907) 362.Google Scholar
129 Ibid. 363.Google Scholar
130 It is now green and can provide fruit meilleur for the diner of the Green Tree's amis (vss. 6676ff.)·Google Scholar
131 Peuckert, ‘Dürre Baum,’ Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens 2 (ed. Bachtold-St, äubli, Berlin/Leipzig 1930) 505–13. Jacoby, op. cit. 491.Google Scholar
132 Gröber, G., Grundriss der romanischen Philologie (Strassburg 1902) 753. It was the opinion of Dr. Brugger, op. cit. (n. 5 supra) 86-9 that the Green Tree grew out of the Didot Perceval episode, and that the scene of the debat is the Earthly Paradise. There is nothing in the debat to support this localization: the setting is clearly ‘enmi la terre.’Google Scholar
133 Cf. the folia of the Cross tree in Honorius’ account, supra at n. 119. But cf. also n. 75 above, on putamina. Google Scholar
134 Cf. the description of the Cross tree by St. Gregory, supra at n. 106. But there may be also a direct recollection of Ezech. 17.23.Google Scholar
136 Schönbach (op. cit. n. 38 supra) made an exhaustive study of this tradition. His references, however, are sometimes to passages not designed to reveal the cosmological significance attached to the dimensions. Schönbach had another purpose in mind. He recognized, as did more recently Rahner, that the tradition is of Greek origin.Google Scholar
136 Jerome, St., Commentar. in ep. ad Ephes. (PL 26.522).Google Scholar
137 Rabanus, , Enarrationes in epp. Pauli, S. (PL 112.423).Google Scholar
138 Ibid. (PL 112.424).Google Scholar
139 Rabanus, , De laudibus Crucis, S. 1.2 (PL 107.157-158).Google Scholar
140 Honor. August. De inv. Crucis, S. (PL 172.946).Google Scholar
141 Augustine, St., Sermo 165 (PL 38.904).Google Scholar
142 Aug. Sermo 53 (PL 38.371).Google Scholar
143 Ibid. Google Scholar
144 Aug. De doctrina Christiana 2.41.62 (PL 34.64; ed. Vogels, , Floril. Patr. 24.47).Google Scholar
145 Aug. Ep. 147 (PL 33.611): ‘Ego haec verba apostoli Pauli sic intelligere soleo: in latitudine, bona opera charitatis; in longitudine perseverantiam usque ad finem; in altitudine spem coelestium praemiorum; in profundo inscrutabilia judicia Dei, unde ista gratia in homines venit.’ See also En. in Psalmum 103 (PL 37.1348); Ep. 140.26.64 (PL 33.566; ed. Goldbacher, , CSEL 44.211); Ep. 55.14.25 (PL 33.216; CSEL 34.2.196-198). One of the most complete statements is found in the Tractatus in Joann. (PL 35. 1949-1953).Google Scholar
146 Aug. Ep. 55 loc. cit. Google Scholar
147 Pseudo-Aug. De cataclysmo (PL 40.699): ‘In profundo crucis occultum est quod non vides, sed inde exsurgit hoc totum quod vides: adsit fides Christiana…’Google Scholar
148 Rabanus, En. in epp. Pauli, S. (PL 112.424).Google Scholar
149 Honor. August. De inv. Crucis, S. (PL 172.946): Latitudo is gemina dilectio; longitudo, perseverantia in bono; sublimitas, spes; profundum, misericordia. Google Scholar
150 Tuitiensis, Rupertus, De divinis officiis (PL 170.159).Google Scholar
151 Swarzenski, Georg, Die Regensburger Buchmalerei des X. und XI. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1901) 95.Google Scholar
152 Boeckler, A., Abendländische Miniaturen (Berlin-Leipzig 1930) 112.Google Scholar
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154 G. Millar, E., The Library of A. Chester Beatty: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Western Manuscripts 1, part 1, 2 (Oxford 1927) plate 83, pp. 110-11. For calling this interesting drawing to my attention, I am grateful to Professor Bischoff.Google Scholar
155 Col. 1.24, cf. Ephes. 1.22-23, 1 Cor. 12.12ff. etc. For a summary of patristic and medieval speculation on Church and Mystical Body see Lubac, de, op. cit. (n. 39 above) 42-51, also the same author's Corpus Mysticum: L'eucharistie et l'église au moyen-âge (2nd ed. Paris 1949), especially ch. 5 (‘L'église corps mystique’)·Google Scholar
156 Col. 1.18, Ephes. 1.22.Google Scholar
157 Boeckler, A., Die Regensburg-Prüfeninger Buchmalerei des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts (Munich 1924) 33–46. See also Bischoff, Bernhard, ‘Literarisches und künstlerisches Leben in St. Emmeram (Regensburg) während des frühen und hohen Mittelalters,’ Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktiner-Ordens und seiner Zweige 51 (1933) 137-9.Google Scholar
158 Boeckler, op. cit. 42 (not on the page here reproduced).Google Scholar
159 Ibid.; Watson, ‘Spec. Virg.’ (n. 89 supra) 451-2.Google Scholar
160 Aug. Tract. in Joann. (PL 35. 1950).Google Scholar
161 Aug. Sermo 165 (PL 38.905): ‘Ab illo profundo quod non vides, surgit totum quod vides.’Google Scholar
162 Aug. Sermo 53 (PL 38.372).Google Scholar
163 Rabanus, En. in epp. Pauli, S. (PL 112.424).Google Scholar
164 Pseudo-Bernard, Vitis mystica 46.163 (PL 184.732), i.e. Appendix VI (spurious) of the Vitis mystica now generally assigned to St. Bonaventure (Opera 8.224; cf. pp. lxiii and 189 n. 6). The authorship of Bonaventure for the main body of the Vitis mystica has likewise been challenged, cf. DHGE 8.781.Google Scholar
165 Liber de mensuratione Crucis, S. (PL 159.298): ‘Da igitur nobis, Domine, veram humilitatem … ut sic habeamus crucis profundum.’ Cf. DThC 1.1134 for rejection of authenticity.Google Scholar
166 Bernard, St., Sermo in die sancto Paschae (PL 183.275); Sermo in festo Andreae, S. (PL 183.513): ‘quatuor haec cornua sunt continentia, patientia, prudentia, et humilitas.’Google Scholar
167 de Folieto, Hugo, Claustrum animae (PL 176.1083f.). Three kinds of cross are distinguished here: the cross of the devil, the cross of the just, and the Cross of Christ; ‘In cruce vero justi profundum est humilitas.’ Cf. LThK 5.180 for authorship.Google Scholar
168 De fructibus carnis et spiritus (PL 176.997). The authorship of Hugh of St. Victor was still defended by Hauréau, but see now Vernet, F., in DThC 7.249; Manitius, M., Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters 3 (Munich 1931) 315; Volk, P., in Dictionnaire de spiritualitè, fasc. 13 (1950) 1547.Google Scholar
169 The three theological virtues are associated with the dimensions, cf. En. in epp. Pauli, S. (PL 112.424). The four cardinal virtues are attached to the dimensions in fig. 6 of the Carmen (PL 107.174); the four cardinal virtues are the ones ‘ex quibus omnis virtutum series procedit.’Google Scholar
170 Damiani, Peter, Ep. 22 (PL 144.405-406).Google Scholar
171 Aug. En. in Psalm. 141 (PL 37. 1838).Google Scholar
172 Rabanus associated the Cross with humilitas, cf. Carmen (PL 107.173).Google Scholar
173 Evidence for this ancient and curious tradition of the cross of the Devil, the anti-type of the Cross, has been collected by Schönbach, op. cit. (n. 38 supra) 187-9. It is mentioned by Peter Damiani, De exaltatione Crucis, S. (PL 144.765) and in the Claustrum animae (PL 176-1083). The first mention that Schönbach found of the cross of the devil was by Dungal in the ninth century (of Bobbio? Pavia? cf. LThK 3.487 for the altogether uncertain identity), Adversus Claudium Taurinensem (Responsa) PL 105.491.Google Scholar
174 Honor. August. In dom. in Quinquagesima (PL 172.969-873).Google Scholar
175 Honor. August. Expositio in Psalm. selectos (PL 172.276-278), at n. 119 supra. Google Scholar
176 Léopold Delisle, Notice sur les manuscrits du ‘Liber Floridus’ de Lambert, chanoine de Saint-Omer (Paris 1906) 131–2.Google Scholar
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178 Watson, , ‘Spec. Virg.’ 449.Google Scholar
179 Émile Mâle, L’Art religieux du treizième siècle en France (3rd ed. Paris 1910) 109. Mâle sees the influence of Honorius’ ladder of virtues, ‘mais l'une conduit à la vie, l'autre à la mort.’Google Scholar
180 Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias (PL 197.385ff.).Google Scholar
181 Maura, D. Böckeler, O.S.B., Der heiligen Hildegard von Bingen ‘Wisse die Wege’ (Scivias) (Berlin 1928) 8. This work contains reproductions of all the illuminations of the Wiesbaden manuscript, most of which belong still to the twelfth century.Google Scholar
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183 Hildegard, op. cit. 3.4 (PL 197.601-603).Google Scholar
184 Ibid. Google Scholar
185 Hildegard, op. cit. 3.8 (PL 197.660). A pagan Germanic parallel would be Irminsul, ‘die gleichsam alles trägt,’ cf. Schröder, op. cit. (n. 30 supra) 58.Google Scholar
186 Hildegard, loc. cit. (PL 197.651).Google Scholar
187 Ibid. (PL 197.653).Google Scholar
188 The other virtues (Böckeler, op. cit. plate 28) are caritas, timor Domini, obedientia, fides, spes, castitas. Google Scholar
189 Ibid. (PL 197.662).Google Scholar
190 Ibid. (PL 197.672). In the miniature of the Wiesbaden MS the infans is shown sitting in the lap of castitas, but St. Hildegard actually speaks of venter and viscera. Google Scholar
191 Böckeler, op. cit. plate 28.Google Scholar
192 Hildegard, op. cit. 3.8 (PL 197.661).Google Scholar
193 Keller, Hiltgart L., Mittelrheinische Buchmalereien in Handschriften aus dem Kreise der Hiltgart von Bingen (Stuttgart 1933) 102.Google Scholar
194 Hildegard may have known a passage in Rabanus’ Carmen de laudibus Crucis, S. (PL 107.167-168) which deals with the relationship between the Cross and the spirituale aedificium or domus Dei, in which the crux sancta is termed columna et firmamentum veritatis. Google Scholar
195 Durmart le Galois (ed. Stengel, , Stuttgart 1873) vss. 1512-1527; 15560-15595. See J. Gildea, J., A Study of the Old French Arthurian Romance Durmart le Gallois (Philadelphia 1949) 17, 26.Google Scholar
196 Durmart, vss. 15819-15820.Google Scholar
197 Brugger, op. cit. 33.Google Scholar
198 Brugger, op. cit. 32.Google Scholar
199 ‘Traditur enim quod ea hora qua Adam de vetita arbore comederit, ea Christus in arbore crucis pendens acetum cum felle biberit…’ says Honorius of Autun in a homily on the Annunciation (PL 172.903).Google Scholar
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