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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.

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Articles
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Eliot, T. S., Four Quartets (New York 1943) 34, 39.Google Scholar

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4 Roach, Didot Perceval 203-204. Between the accounts of the Modena and Paris MSS there is little difference. The Didot MS gives the age of the children as seven.Google Scholar

5 This view is shared by all scholars who have written on these episodes: May Weston, Jessie, ‘The Apple Mystery in Arthurian Romance, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 9 (1925) 417430; Rose Peebles, J., ‘The Children in the Tree,’ Medieval Studies in Memory of Gertrude Schoepperle Loomis (Paris 1927) 285-299; Ernst Brugger, The Illuminated Tree in Two Arthurian Romances (New York 1929); Roach, Didot Perceval 76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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7 Meyer, Wilhelm, ‘Die Geschichte des Kreuzholzes vor Christus,’ Abhandlungen der königl. bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philos.-Philol. Kl. 16.2 (Munich 1882) 136. For the legend itself 131-166.Google Scholar

8 Brugger, op. cit. 9, 20-25, 32-33.Google Scholar

9 Only a few titles from the vast literature based upon this theory can be given here. One should consult Brown, A. C. L., ‘Iwain, a Study of the Origins of Arthurian Romance,’ Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature 8 (Boston 1903); Loomis, R. S., Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes (New York 1949); Nitze, W. A., ‘The Castle of the Grail — An Irish Analogue,’ Studies in Honor of Marshall Elliott, A. 1 (Baltimore 1911) 19-51.Google Scholar

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11 Ibid. 123, 128.Google Scholar

12 LThK 5.265.Google Scholar

13 Meyer, op. cit. 130.Google Scholar

14 Brugger, op. cit. 23.Google Scholar

15 Brugger, op. cit. 25.Google Scholar

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25 Wolfram von Eschenbach, Der Wartburgkrieg (ed. Simrock, , Stuttgart and Augsburg 1858) 99103. On the date cf. Ehrismann, op. cit.: Mittelhochdeutsche Literatur, Blütezeit (Munich 1927) 77-9.Google Scholar

26 Pseudo-Alcuin, , De divinis officiis (PL 101.1208).Google Scholar

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28 Jacoby, , op. cit. 496; cf. Aug. Wünsche, Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser (Leipzig 1905) 55.Google Scholar

29 Bousset, Wilhelm, ‘Platons Weltseele und das Kreuz Christi, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 14 (1913) 273–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 See the poem De Pascha, below, sec. IV, and the apostrophe to the Cross by Hippolytus, below, sec. Jacoby, V., op. cit. 493, mentions a world tree described in the Apocryphal Acts of Matthew (fourth or fifth century), in which a remarkable parallel to Yggdrasil is found. As is the case with Yggdrasil, honey drips from the top of the tree; the man-eaters (Anthropophagi) eat of the fruit and bathe in the fountain at its root and are transformed into gesittete Menschen, just as the fountain of Yggdrasil ‘allen Dingen… eiweisse Farbe mitteilt.’ On Yggdrasil's features, cf. Grimm, op. cit. loc. cit.; Schr, F. R.öder, Die Germanen (Tübingen 1929) 46–7.Google Scholar

31 Bousset, op. cit. deals with apocryphal and gnostic material, 275-281. Cf. also Anwander, Anton, ‘Das Kreuz Christi und andere Kreuze, Theologische Quartalschrift 115 (1934) 491515.Google Scholar

32 For the cosmological Cross see the sermon De inventione S. Crucis (PL 172.946); for the cosmological tree, the Expositio in Psalmos selectos (PL 172.276-279); cf. below, sec. VI at n. 119.Google Scholar

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35 Rahner has formulated the attitude of the early Greek Fathers toward the Cross in a stunning passage: ‘Die Kreuzform ist ihm zunächst das von Gott (der von Uranfang heimlich immer auf das Kreuz seines Sohnes sah) dem Kosmos aufgeprägte Grundschema, das Weltbaugesetz… Was Platon im Timaios aus alter pythagoräischer Weisheit schrieb von der sich im himmlischen chi zeigenden Weltseele, das liest nun der antike Christ wie eine schon den Heiden aufgegangene Ahnung des Weltbauenden Logos, der am Kreuz hängend den Kosmos zusammenfasst und um das Mysterium des Kreuzes schwingen lässt’ (78).Google Scholar

36 Rahner, op. cit. 79. Evidence of the use by Irenaeus of the terms from Ephes. 3.18 (latitudo, longitudo, sublimitas, profundum) Rahner finds in the following passage from the Epideixis which survives only in an Armenian text, and which in Father Joseph Smith, P.'s recent translation, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching c. 34 (Ancient Christian Writers 16; Westminster, Md. and London 1952) goes as follows: ‘So by the obedience, whereby He obeyed unto death, hanging on the tree, He undid the old disobedience wrought in the tree. And because He is Himself the Word of God Almighty, who in His invisible form pervades us universally in the whole world, and encompasses both its length and breadth and height and depth — for by God's Word everything is disposed and administered — the Son of God was also crucified in these, imprinted in the form of a cross on the universe;… it is He who makes bright the height, that is, what is in heaven, and holds the deep, which is in the bowels of the earth, and stretches forth and extends the length from East to West, navigating also the Northern parts and the breadth of the South, and calling in all the dispersed from all sides to the knowledge of the Father’ (pp. 69-70; with references to Ephes. 3.18, Plato, and Justin given in n. 171).Google Scholar

37 Rahner, op. cit. 81: ‘Auch in der lateinischen Mystik hat dieser Lobpreis des kosmischen Kreuzes bis tief ins Mittelalter hinein weitergeklungen.’Google Scholar

38 Sch, Anton E.önbach, Altdeutsche Predigten 2 (Graz 1888) 177189. This does not seem to have been known to Rahner.Google Scholar

39 Henri de Lubac, S.J., Catholicisme: Les aspects sociaux du dogme (4th ed. Paris 1947) 408 n. 1: ‘… L'une et l'autre [Cross and Crucified] apparaissent identifiés de façon analogue en divers écrits du IIe siècle… A la même époque aussi, des dimensions géantes sont souvent attribués au Christ ou à sa croix…’ Cf. also de Lubac's article, ‘L'arbre cosmique,’ Mélanges É. Podechard (Lyon 1950) 191-198.Google Scholar

40 Rahner, op. cit. 80-81, and in the passage (78) quoted above, note 35. Cf. Lactantius, Divinae institutiones 4.26.36 (ed. Brandt, , CSEL 19.383): ‘Extendit ergo in passione manus suas orbemque dimensus est, ut iam tunc ostenderet ab ortu solis usque ad occasum magnum populum ex omnibus linguis et tribubus congregatum sub alas suas esse venturum signumque illud maximum atque sublime frontibus suis suscepturum.’ Gregory of Nyssa, Oratio 1 de resurrectione (PG 46.623): Σημαίνει γάϱ διά μὲν τοῦ ὕψους τò ὑπεϱϰείμενον · διὰ δὲ τοῦ βάθους τò ὑποχθόνιον · τῷ μῆϰει δὲ ϰαὶ τῷ πλάτει τὰ διὰ μέσου πέϱατα, τὰ ὑπò τῆς πᾶν διαϰϱατοῦσης δυνάμεως συνεχόμενα. Google Scholar

41 Rahner, op. cit. loc. cit. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 13.28 (PG 33.806): Ἐξεπέτασεν ἐν στανϱῶ τὰς χεῖϱας, ἵνα πεϱιλάβῃ τῆς οἰϰουμένης τὰ πέϱατα: τῆς γὰϱ γῆς τò μεσώτατον ὁ Γολγοθᾶς οὗτός ἐστιν. Google Scholar

42 Bousset, op. cit. 283. Cf. Ignatius of Antioch, Ep. ad Ephes. 9.1 (ed. Lightfoot, , Apostolic Fathers 2.2.53): ἀναφεϱόμενοι εἰς τὰ ὕψη διὰ τῆς μηχανῆς Ιησοῦ Χϱιστοῦ, ὅς ἐστιν σταυϱός. Google Scholar

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44 Bergema, op. cit. 503-12.Google Scholar

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48 Aug. Wünsche, op. cit. (n. 28 supra). Google Scholar

49 Kampers, Franz, Mittelalterliche Sagen vom Paradiese und vom Holze Christi (Cologne 1897). On the Cross as the Lignum Vitae, one should consult Rahner's chapter, op. cit. 90-100, ‘Das Kreuz als biblisches Mysterium.’Google Scholar

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51 Wensinck, A. J., ‘The Ideas of the Western Semites concerning the Navel of the Earth,’ Verhandelingen der Akademie van Wetenschappen, K., Afd. Lett. new series 17 (Amsterdam 1917); Bergema, op. cit. 399, 411, 466, 467; Jacoby, op. cit. 490. On oriental analogues cf. Uno Holmberg, ‘Der Baum des Lebens,’ Annales Academiae scientiarum Fennicae, ser. B, 16 nr. 3. (Helsinki 1922/23) 94-6.Google Scholar

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53 Herrmann, Johannes, Ezechiel übersetzt und erklärt (Sellin's Komm. zum Alten Testament 11 [Leipzig 1924]) 39, 247; Jacoby, op. cit. 492, 493.Google Scholar

54 Dillmann, A., Das christliche Adambuch des Morgenlandes (Göttingen 1853) 81; the quotation in Kampers, op. cit. 23 and Rahner, op. cit. 94 is not literal. The translation by Malan, S. C., The Book of Adam and Eve (London 1822) was unavailable. Cf. also the parallel text in the Book of the Cave of Treasures (n. 55, below) 72: ‘… and shall deposit it [my body] in the centre of the earth, for in that place shall redemption be effected for me and for all my children.’Google Scholar

55 The Book of the Cave of Treasures (tr.E. Wallis Budge, A., London 1927) 63. On the date see Rahner, , op. cit. 94, who quotes from Bezold, C.'s German translation (Leipzig 1883-88).Google Scholar

56 Beda, De locis sanctis (ed. Geyer, , CSEL 39.307): ‘In medio autem Hierusalem, ubi cruce Domini superposita mortuus revixit, columna celsa stat, quae aestivo solstitio umbram non facit. Unde putant ibi mediam esse terram et historice dictum: Deus autem rex noster, ante saecula operatus est salutem in medio terrae’ (Psal. 73.12).Google Scholar

57 Bergema, op. cit. 445-446. The tree of Ezechiel 17 is related to that of Ezechiel 31: ibid. 449; Joh. Jeremias, Der Gottesberg: Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis der biblischen Symbolsprache (Gütersloh 1919) 42, calls the tree of Ezechiel 31 the kosmische Paradieszeder. Jacoby, op. cit. 492-3.Google Scholar

58 Jacoby, op. cit. 490; Heinisch, P., Das Buch Ezechiel übersetzt und erklärt (Bonn 1923) 47.Google Scholar

59 Heinisch, op. cit. 89-90.Google Scholar

60 Herrmann, op. cit. 107; Heinisch, op. cit. 90.Google Scholar

61 Ibid. Google Scholar

62 Jacoby, , op. cit . 490.Google Scholar

63 All ancient peoples imagined the link between heaven and earth in varying forms. Cf. Holmberg, , op. cit. 94-96; Blok, op. cit. (n. 17 supra) describes the Egyptian forms of the column, ladder, mountain, and Kletterbaum. On the tower as an image of the holy mountain connecting heaven and earth, cf. Bergema, op. cit. 483-5. On the tree, ibid. 276-7. On the Nordic tree and column, cf. Schroder, op. cit. (n. 30 supra) 46-7, 58.Google Scholar

64 Bergema, op. cit. 452-8; Patch, op. cit. (n. 20 supra) 60 n. 5. See below, VIII at n. 180ff.Google Scholar

65 Jewish Encyclopedia, ‘Paradise’; Patch, op. cit. 13; Bergema, 262, mentions a Rabbinical text in which the Tree of Life was ‘een reis van 500 jaren hoog.’Google Scholar

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67 Cf. Jacoby, , op. cit. 487 on the influence of Jewish legend.Google Scholar

68 Printed in Cyprian, Opera (ed. Hartel, , CSEL 3.3.305 ff.); Pseudo-Tertullian, De Ugno vitae (PL 2.1113ff.).Google Scholar

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71 Manitius, Max, Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Poesie bis zur Mitte des 8. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart 1891) 117.Google Scholar

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75 Ibid. 598. Rasi considers the putamina (bark) identical with the folia of Apoc. 22.2.Google Scholar

76 Cf. Patch, op. cit. 140-1.Google Scholar

77 Cf. Hartel, in Cyprian, Opera 1.xxxiv-xxxv.Google Scholar

78 Brandt, , loc. cit (n. 73 above). For eighth- and ninth-century MSS see at nn. 114-117 below.Google Scholar

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80 See below, section VIII.Google Scholar

81 De, Lubac, , op. cit. (n. 39 above) 407 n. 1: ‘très probablement de saint Hippolyte’; but on the basis of Nautin's more recent investigations, Quasten, J., Patrology II (Westminster, Md. and Utrecht 1953) 178179, decides for the second alternative.Google Scholar

82 Thus Photius asserts, but the matter remains doubtful; cf. Quasten, op. cit. 164 and 169, also Altaner, B., Patrologie (2nd ed. Freiburg, Br. 1950) 135.Google Scholar

83 Op cit. 407-9. The homily is printed among the spurious works in the editions of St. John Chrysostom (hom. 6 de pascha: PG 59.743-746), but now more conveniently available in the edition of Nautin, P., Homélies Paschales I: Une homélie inspirée du traité sur la Pâque d’Hippolyte (Sources chrétiennes 27; Paris 1950).Google Scholar

84 Jacob of Sarug, ‘Gedicht über die Vision Jakobs zu Bethel,’ Ausgewählte Schriften der syrischen Dichter aus dem Syrischen übersetzt von Landersdorfer, S. (Bibliothek der Kirchenväter 6; 1912) 332–43. Cf. LThK 5.262.Google Scholar

85 Pseudo-Augustine, De cataclysmo ad catechumenos (PL 40.696ff.).Google Scholar

86 Franses, D., O.F.M., Die Werke des Hl. Quodvultdeus (Munich 1920) 32–3, 78-9.Google Scholar

87 Watson, Arthur, The Early Iconography of the Tree of Jesse (London 1934) 51.Google Scholar

88 Ibid. 52; Peter Damiani, Sermo 47 (PL 144.761).Google Scholar

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91 Kirchner, J., Beschreibende Verzeichnisse der Miniaturen-Handschriften der Preussischen Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin 1 (Leipzig 1926) 67.Google Scholar

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98 Raby, E.F.J., A History of Christian-Latin Poetry: From the Beginnings to the Close of the Middle Ages (Oxford 1927) 347.Google Scholar

99 AH 54 (1915) 120.Google Scholar

100 LThK 1.193f.; de Ghellinck, J., L'essor de la littérature latine au XII e siècle 1 (Brussels 1946) 83.Google Scholar

101 ab Insulis, Alanus, De Sancta Cruce (PL 210.223-226).Google Scholar

102 See section VIII.Google Scholar

103 They are: scala Jacob, draco Moysis, tau, virga Moysis, lignum amaras aquas mutans in dulces, de petra eliciens aquam abundantem. Google Scholar

104 Molsdorf, op. cit. (n. 45 supra) 61, mentions only the very late Speculum humanae saluationis, in which Jacob's dream is a type of the nailing to the Cross. Honorius of Autun in the Gemma animae (PL 172.559) discusses the appearance of the Cross in types ante legem, sub lege, and sub gratia. He does not mention the ladder of Jacob as a type ante legem, but, among others, and more familiar, the sacrifice of Isaac. A contemporary illumination which serves as the frontispece to Genesis in the Bible of Lambeth Palace (cf. Eric Millar, G., ‘Les principaux manuscrits à peintures du Lambeth Palace à Londres,’ Bulletin de la Société française de reproductions de manuscrits à peintures [Paris 1924] 21-2) depicts three scenes: Abraham serving the three angels under the oak of Mambre, type of the Cross according to Honorius, De inv. Crucis, S. (PL 172.943); the sacrifice of Isaac, type of the Crucifixion ante legem according to Honorius; and Jacob's dream. Jacob is depicted asleep, the ladder rising above him, and upon it ‘une figure à mi-corps de la Divinité.’ The combination of this subject with two others, both of them types of the Cross, suggests that it too is a type, and that all three are types ante legem. In this circumstance lies, undoubtedly, the reason for their use as a frontispiece to Genesis.Google Scholar

105 Cayr, F.é, Patrologie 2 (3e éd. Paris 1945) 236.Google Scholar

106 St. Gregory, Moralium 19.1 (PL 76.97).Google Scholar

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113 Rabanus, op. cit. 1.16 (PL 107.211-214): ‘Cum Psalmista dicat: « Initium sapientiae timor Domini. » Quod ita solvi potest: Propheta ergo cum de flore virgae, quae de radice Jesse eggressura erat, prophetavit, id est, Christo…’ (col. 213).Google Scholar

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115 Hartel, in Cyprian, Opera 1.xxxiv.Google Scholar

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117 Professor Bischoff has seen this manuscript and was kind enough to give me his expert opinion as to its provenance and date.Google Scholar

118 Damiani, Peter, De exaltatione Crucis, S. (PL 144.776): ‘O crux luna micantior, sole splendidior… O vere nobilis arbor, quae de terreno quidem cespite orta procedis sed super astra coeli felices ramos expandis! Per te siquidem ad patriam exsul homo revertitur, et angelorum numerus, qui diminutus fuerat, instauratur. ‘Google Scholar

119 Honor. August. Expositio in Psalmos selectos (PL 172.276-278).Google Scholar

120 Honor. August. Sermo in dominica in Quinquagesima (PL 172.873): ‘Hujus arboris poma sunt opera bona.’Google Scholar

121 Bonaventura, S., Opera omnia 8 (ed. Quarrachi, 1898) 68. Bonaventure clearly has the tree of Apoc. 22.1-2 in mind. For the date see É. Longpré, in DGHE 9.781.Google Scholar

122 Opp. 8.69.Google Scholar

123 Bousset, W., ‘Die Himmelsreise der Seele, Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 4 (1901) 136, though in a different context, points to this anticipatory equivalence in ancient religions.Google Scholar

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125 Bonaventura, , op. cit. 69.Google Scholar

126 Ibid. Google Scholar

127 de Deguileville, Guillaume, Pèlerinage de l’Ame (ed. J. Stürzinger, J., London 1895). See also L. Galpin, S., ‘Le Pèlerinage de l’Ame,’ PMLA 25 (1910) 275ff.Google Scholar

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

153 A. Endres, J., Beiträge zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte des mittelalterlichen Regensburgs (Regensburg n.d.) 93, 101.Google Scholar

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) 3346. 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

177 Ernst von Frisch, ‘Über die Salzburger-Handschrift von Hugo von St. Viktors Opusculum le Fructu Carnis et Spiritus,’ Festschrift für Georg Leidinger (Munich 1930) 6771.Google Scholar

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

182 Hildegard of Bingen, op. cit. 3.2, 3.7-8 (PL 197.577-589, 641-672). Hildegard may have known St. Gregory's commentary on Ezechiel 40.5 (PL 76.938f.), for the description found there of the Church is an excellent definition of Hildegard's aedificium: ‘Super quem [montem] erat quasi aedificium civitatis vergenti ad Austrum’ (Ezech. 40.5). This is the Church ‘quae regnatura in coelo adhuc laborat in terra. Et vos tanquam lapides vivi super-aedificamini’ (1 Peter 2.5). St. Gregory interprets the steps leading into the temple (Ezech. 40.6) as the virtues, ibid. (PL 76.959f.).Google Scholar

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