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‘Christus’ in the Pseudo-Isidorian ‘Liber de Ortu et Obitu Patriarcharum’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Robert E. McNally
Robert E. McNally*
Affiliation:
Woodstock College, Woodstock, Md.
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Extract

In what is perhaps one of the most provocative essays ever written on a single point of liturgical history, Josef Jungmann, S.J., has traced the roots of the outstanding abuses in medieval piety to an exaggerated, disproportionate emphasis on the divinity of Christ at the expense of his humanity. This way of thinking and speaking of the Incarnation was the inevitable result of the Church's vigorous reaction to ‘the perfidious Arianism’ of the Frankish and Gothic peoples, who poured into Europe in the course of the late fifth and sixth centuries. For these new nations the Christ, the Logos of the Gospel, was subordinate to the Father from whom according to the Scriptures he had been born. Less than God, he was, therefore, only a creature, even though of the most noble proportions. This theological subordinationism was essential to the Arian faith which these nations professed.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 21 , 1965 , pp. 167 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © 1965 New York, Fordham University Press 

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References

1 J. Jungmann, S.J., ‘Die Abwehr des Germanischen Arianismus und der Umbruch der religiösen Kultur im Frühen Mittelalter,’ Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 69 (1947) 36-99 which has been republished in Liturgisches Erbe und Pastorale Gegenwart (Munich 1960) 3-86. My references here are to the latter work.Google Scholar

2 The Synod of Toledo in 589 speaks of Arius as ‘rectae fidei pestis Arius,’ and of Arianism as ‘perfidia Ariana.’ Cf. Mansi, Collectio 9.980B; 984D.Google Scholar

3 The Germanic Semi-Arians, the spiritual children of the Arian bishop Ulphilas († 383) professed the faith of the Synods of Seleucia-Rimini (359). Cf. A. Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole (Breslau 1897) 207ff.Google Scholar

4 2 Cor. 5.16. Paul's thought here seems to be this: Though we Apostles, especially those among us who knew the Lord in his earthly life, have known him in a corporeal way (secundum carnem), we now no longer know him in this fashion. Decisive now are our inner relations to the Risen One. Cf. J. Jungmann, op. cit. 65.Google Scholar

5 For example, the ancient prayer-formula, Per Christum Dominum nostrum, which indicates the mediatorship of Christ, is now altered to Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus sancti, Deus …, which brings out his Trinitarian aspectGoogle Scholar

6 Cf. Contra Varimadum 1 (PL 62.351-400) and Epist. 8 (PL 80.376) of king Sisibut.Google Scholar

7 The older formula, Gloria Patri per Filium cum Spiritu sancto, shows the order of procession in the Godhead. It remains an orthodox formula.Google Scholar

8 PL 83.1275B-1294C.Google Scholar

9 PL 83.1293–1302.Google Scholar

10 Cf. R. E. McNally, S.J., Der irische Liber de numeris (Munich 1957) for an analysis both of the manuscripts and the sources of this work.Google Scholar

11 Cf. Cuissard, C., Inventaire des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque d’Orléans, Fonds de Fleury (Orleans 1885) 93–94. The manuscript (p. 355) bears the inscription: ‘Hic est liber sancti Benedicti Floriacensis.’ Prof. B. Bischoff is inclined to situate the codex in the diocese of Passau, ‘perhaps in the neighborhood of Mondsee.’ Cf. M. Coens, ‘Les Litanies Bavaroises du ‘libellus precum’ dit de Fleury,’ Analecta Bollandiana 77 (1959) 390.Google Scholar

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16 Morin, D. G., ‘Textes inédits relatifs au symbole et à la vie chrétienne,’ Revue Bénédictine 22 (1905) 505–24. Here only the portion relative to the Athanasian Creed is printed; sc., ‘Patris tamen’ (line 38) to ‘in humanitate’ (line 63).Google Scholar

17 Cf. McNally, R. E., ‘Isidorian Pseudepigrapha in the Early Middle Ages,’ Isidoriana (Leon 1961) 315.Google Scholar

18 Cf. e.g., Moralia in Iob 27.10.17 (PL 76.407D). Cf. R. Kottje, Studien zum Einfluss des alten Testamentes auf Recht und Liturgie des frühen Mittelalters, Bonner Historische Forschungen 23 (Bonn 1964) 64 ff.Google Scholar

19 PL 38.1028, cited by E. Norden, Die Antike Kunstprosa 2 (Darmstadt 1958) 622.Google Scholar

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21 Edit., Hellmann, S., Texte und Untersuchungen 34.1 (Munich 1909).Google Scholar

22 Edit., John Gwynn (London 1913), f. 5v, p. 10.Google Scholar

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7-8: Mt. 1.1-2Google Scholar

9-10: Mt. 2.2Google Scholar

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20-23: Rom. 11. 33-34Google Scholar

23-24: Rom. 11.36Google Scholar

80: Jn. 10.30Google Scholar

81: Jn. 14.28Google Scholar

84-85: Jn. 1.1Google Scholar

86: Jn. 1.3Google Scholar

87: Is. 41.4Google Scholar

88: 1 Tim. 2.5Google Scholar

93: Apoc. 19.16Google Scholar

100: Gen. 46.3Google Scholar

101: Exod. 13.22; 33.10Google Scholar

102: Exod. 13.22Google Scholar

107: Mt. 12.23Google Scholar

108: Mt. 11.27Google Scholar

109: Is. 11.7 113-114: Zach. 3.9; 4.2Google Scholar

115: Dan. 7.9Google Scholar

117: Apoc. 1.18Google Scholar

118: Jn. 14.6Google Scholar

120: Jn. 15.1Google Scholar

121: Deut. 4.24Google Scholar

122: Jn. 6.50Google Scholar

123: Apoc. 5.5Google Scholar

125: Jn. 10.11Google Scholar

127: Cant. 2.1Google Scholar

129: Mal. 4.2Google Scholar

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171: Ps. 134.6Google Scholar

201: Mt. 3.17Google Scholar

221: Mt. 27.28Google Scholar

225: Mt. 27.46; Jn. 19.30Google Scholar

222: Mk. 15.22Google Scholar

234: Lk. 24.35Google Scholar

235-6: Lk. 24.42Google Scholar