Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: using the past, interpreting the present, influencing the future
- 1 Memory, identity and power in Lombard Italy
- 2 Memory and narrative in the cult of early Anglo-Saxon saints
- 3 The uses of the Old Testament in early medieval canon law: the Collectio Vetus Gallica and the Collectio Hibernensis
- 4 The transmission of tradition: Gregorian influence and innovation in eighth-century Italian monasticism
- 5 The world and its past as Christian allegory in the early Middle Ages
- 6 The Franks as the New Israel? Education for an identity from Pippin to Charlemagne
- 7 Political ideology in Carolingian historiography
- 8 The Annals of Metz and the Merovingian past
- 9 The empire as ecclesia: Hrabanus Maurus and biblical historia for rulers
- 10 Teutons or Trojans? The Carolingians and the Germanic Past
- 11 A man for all seasons: Pacificus of Verona and the creation of a local Carolingian past
- APPENDIX: The Memorial to Pacificus of Verona
- Index
5 - The world and its past as Christian allegory in the early Middle Ages
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: using the past, interpreting the present, influencing the future
- 1 Memory, identity and power in Lombard Italy
- 2 Memory and narrative in the cult of early Anglo-Saxon saints
- 3 The uses of the Old Testament in early medieval canon law: the Collectio Vetus Gallica and the Collectio Hibernensis
- 4 The transmission of tradition: Gregorian influence and innovation in eighth-century Italian monasticism
- 5 The world and its past as Christian allegory in the early Middle Ages
- 6 The Franks as the New Israel? Education for an identity from Pippin to Charlemagne
- 7 Political ideology in Carolingian historiography
- 8 The Annals of Metz and the Merovingian past
- 9 The empire as ecclesia: Hrabanus Maurus and biblical historia for rulers
- 10 Teutons or Trojans? The Carolingians and the Germanic Past
- 11 A man for all seasons: Pacificus of Verona and the creation of a local Carolingian past
- APPENDIX: The Memorial to Pacificus of Verona
- Index
Summary
Why is the world as it is and what is the meaning of past events? There are many ways of looking at this issue, only one of which is to investigate developmental trends for chains of events and the evolution of society over time. As modern historians it is acutely important to be aware that the past may have been examined by earlier writers for very different purposes and understood in very different ways to those we might expect initially. Early Christians were certainly interested in chronologies and histories, but many writers expressed a diVerent focus of concern by analysing narratives of events and descriptions of scenes and images for their timeless symbolism. The key idea behind this was that holy power transcended human time and that spiritual qualities were of undying potency and relevance.
In the important early Christian tradition of biblical exegesis it was of more significance to answer these questions than it was simply to describe what had happened. Biblical scholars understood that God's creation and its history were littered with His symbols. Time was dominated by the descriptions and predictions of Scripture from Genesis to the Apocalypse. The diagnostic tool for understanding this sacred and profane chronology was allegorical and typological reading, which acted to reveal universal symbols of goodness and evil from within the ancient narratives of Scripture.
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- The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages , pp. 102 - 113Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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