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Cynewulf And Alcuin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Carleton F. Brown
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Extract

Attention has been called by Prof. A. S. Cook to an interesting parallel between the description of the Day of Judgment in Cynewulf's Elene, vv. 1277–1320, and a passage in Alcuin's De Fide Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis. Prof. Cook believes that the correspondences between these two passages are so complete as to prove the dependence of Cynewulf upon Alcuin. Inasmuch as Alcuin's treatise was not written until 802–4 a. d., Cynewulf's dependence, if established, would oblige us to throw the Elene, and perhaps the rest of the Cynewulfian poetry, into the 9th century. The vital importance of such a conclusion to the whole question of Cynewulf's date and identity is apparent.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , 1903 , pp. 308 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1903

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References

Note 1 in page 308 Anglia, Vol. xv, 1892, pp. 9 ff.; cf. also the Christ of Cynewulf, ed. A. S. Cook, 1900, pp. lxix-lxx.

Note 2 in page 308 Liber iii, cap. 21, Migne, Patrol., Vol. ci, p. 53.

Note 3 in page 308 Anglia, xv, p. 20.

Note 1 in page 309 Anglia, xv, p. 13.

Note 2 in page 309 Prof. Cook quotes from the purgatorial descriptions of Caesarius of Arles (Pseudo-Augustine), Bede, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Ælfric. The general resemblance between these passages and the descriptions of purgatory in the Anglo-Saxon poets had already been noted by Waller Deering (The Anglo-Saxon Poets on the Judgment Day, 1890, pp. 23 and 27).

Note 3 in page 309 Migne, Patrol., Vol. vi, col. 802, note.

Note 1 in page 310 Contra Cels., Lib. v, 15, ed. DelaRue, 1733, Vol. i, p. 588.

Note 1 in page 311 In Lucam Hom., xiv, ed. DelaRue, Vol. iii, p. 948 A.

Note 2 in page 311 Ed. DelaRue, Vol. ii, p. 148 B.

Note 3 in page 311 Ed. DelaRue, Vol. ii, p. 663–4. In addition, cf. Origen's 16th Homily on Jeremiah, DelaRue, Vol. iii, p. 231–2; and 2nd Homily on I. Kings 28, DelaRue, Vol. ii, p. 498.

Note 4 in page 311 Orat. xxxix, 19, Migne, Patrolog. Graeca, Vol. 36, col. 358; cf. also Orat. xl, Ibid., col. 730.

Note 1 in page 312 Migne, Patrolog. Graeca, Vol. 46, col. 99.

Note 2 in page 312 Lib. vii, cap. 21, Migne, Patrol., Vol. vi, col. 802.

Note 1 in page 313 Migne, Patrol., Vol. ix, col. 522; cf. also Hilary's Treatise on Ps. 65 (Ibid., col. 432). In this later passage, however, it is not certain that he is referring to the ordeal at the Judgment-day.

Note 2 in page 313 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xiv, col. 980–1.

Note 1 in page 314 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xv, col. 1227–8; cf. further Ambrose, In Ps. 1. Enarratio, Migne, Vol. xiv, col. 950–2.

Note 2 in page 314 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xxv, col. 1071.

Note 3 in page 314 Migne, Patrol., xxiv, col. 677–8.

Note 4 in page 314 “Solvitur corpore anima, et post finem vitae hujus adhuc tamen futuri judicii ambiguo suspenditur” (Migne, Patrol., Vol. xiv, col. 344).

Note 1 in page 315 De Civitate Dei, xxi, 26; Migne, Patrol., Vol. xli, col. 745.

Note 2 in page 315 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xxxvii, col. 686.

Note 3 in page 315 De Civitate Dei, Lib. xx, cap. 18, Migne, Patrol., Vol. xli, col. 684.

Note 4 in page 315 Migne, Patrol., xxxvii, col. 1362–3; cf. also Augustine's Enchiridion, Migne, Vol. xl, col. 265.

Note 1 in page 316 Cf. Commentary on Ps. 104: 12, Migne, Patrol., xxxvii, col. 1362–3; also De Civit. Dei, Lib. xx, 18 and 21, Migne, Patrol., xli, cols. 684 and 692.

Note 2 in page 316 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xxxix, col. 1949; cf. also the opening section of the sermon, col. 1946.

Note 3 in page 316 Cook's Christ of Cynewulf, p. lxix.

Note 1 in page 317 Bellarmine (De Purgatorio, Lib. ii, cap. 1), discussing Alcuin's representation that the saints also pass through the purgatorial fire, expressly states that he was not the first who held this view. After citing other cases from the Fathers, he refers to the Vision of Fursey (Bede, Eccl. Hist., Lib. iii, cap. 19) as affording another instance of this conception.

Note 1 in page 318 Ed. DelaRue, Vol. ii, p. 148.

Note 2 in page 318 Ed. DelaRue, Vol. iv, p. 541.

Note 3 in page 318 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xiv, col. 950–2; cf. also Ambrose, In Ps. 118 Expositio, Migne, xv, col. 1266–7.

Note 1 in page 319 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xvii, col. 199–200.

Note 1 in page 321 Homily viii: In die Coenae Dom., Migne, Patrol., Vol. lxxxvii, col. 619.

Note 2 in page 321 Migne, Patrol., Vol. ci, col. 53.

Note 1 in page 322 Enchiridion, Migne, Patrol., Vol. xl, col. 284.

Note 1 in page 323 Lib. xxi, 16, Migne, Patrol., Vol. xli, col. 731.

Note 2 in page 323 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xl, col. 410.

Note 1 in page 324 Cook's Cynewulf's Christ, pp. 193, 210, and 217.

Note 2 in page 324 Ibid., p. lxiv.

Note 3 in page 324 Prof. Cook points to the fact that a copy of Lactantius was in the York Library in Cynewulf's time, and believes that our poet might easily have read it there. But the York Library contained, beside Lactantius, the works of Ambrose, Hilary, Jerome, Augustine, and numerous other theological treatises.

Note 4 in page 324 Anglia, Vol. xv, p. 17.

Note 1 in page 325 Cook's Christ of Cynewulf, p. lxx.

Note 2 in page 325 Alcuin also affords elsewhere a Judgment-day description which wholly lacks the special purgatorial features which we have been considering (Adversus Elipandum, Lib. iii, Migne, Patrol., Vol. ci, col. 277).

Note 1 in page 328 Cook's Christ of Cynewulf, p. 217.

Note 2 in page 328 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xxxix, col. 2210.

Note 1 in page 329 Cf. Commentary on Ps. 104: 12, Migne, Patrol., Vol. xxxvii, cols. 1362–3; also De Civil. Dei, Lib. xx, 18 and 21, Migne, Patrol., Vol. xli, cols. 684 and 692.

Note 2 in page 329 Thus, for example, cf. Ambrose, Migne, Patrol., Vol. xv, col. 1227–8.

Note 3 in page 329 Alcuin's order is necessarily somewhat confused inasmuch as he is quoting both from Eligius and from Augustine.

Note 1 in page 333 Migne, Patrol., Vol. xvii, p. 545. Cf. also Vol. xvi, col. 1331.

Note 1 in page 334 J. M. Kemble, Preface to Codex Vercelliensis, p. viii.

Note 2 in page 334 De Cruce Ruthwellensi, p. 14.

Note 3 in page 334 Angelsächs. Grammatik, p. 11.

Note 4 in page 334 Kynewulf der Bischof und Dichter, 1898.

Note 5 in page 334 See Mr. W. W. Lawrence's article, Publications of the Mod. Lang. Assoc., New Series, x, 2.