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‘No Milkless Cow’: The Cross of Christ in Medieval Irish Literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2016
Extract
The cross of Christ in the Middle Ages was the most powerful symbol of God’s victory over sin, death and the forces of evil, while also representing the most abject suffering and degradation of Jesus Christ, the God-Man. A simplistic reading of the evolution of the theology of the cross during this period posits a transition from the early medieval victorious and heroic Christ figure, reigning and triumphant upon the cross, to a late medieval emaciated and tortured object of pity whose ignominious death was supposed to elicit heartfelt compassion for his plight and sincere sorrow for the sin which placed him on the beams of the tree of crucifixion. Of course, there is a great deal of value in this argument, and much evidence might be brought forward to support its central thesis. However, it should not be pushed too far; it might also be remembered that the essential paradox of Christ the victor-victim is a constant theme in Christian theology, expressed in the sixth-century Vexilla regis in its identification of the cross as ‘victim of the passion’s glory, by which life brought death to an end, and, by death, gave life again’ and in the hymn Victimae paschali laudes from the central medieval period: ‘Death with life contended, combat strangely ended, life’s own champion slain yet lives to reign’. The image of the victorious cross of Christ, conceived of as simultaneously an instrument of triumph and of torture, would persist right through the late medieval period, despite the development of a greater emphasis on the physical sufferings of Christ in his passion and their ever more graphic depictions. This essay, which examines the way in which the cross of Christ is presented in medieval Irish literature, provides sufficient examples to make this point clear; these are drawn from a variety of sources including religious verse, saints’ lives, medieval travel accounts and sermon material. Of course, these examples are best viewed within the context of a broader medieval European devotional culture from which Ireland was certainly not immune.
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References
1 Cited in Viladesau, Richard, The Beauty of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts - From the Catacombs to the Eue of the Renaissance (Oxford, 2006), 39 Google Scholar.
2 The influence of English and Continental devotional cultures on medieval Irish piety and the manuscript transmission of much of the following literature are discussed in Salvador Ryan, ‘The Devotional Landscape of Medieval Irish Cultural Catholicism inter hibernicos et inter anglicos, c.1200 - c.1550’, in Oliver Rafferty, ed., Irish Catholic Identities (Manchester, forthcoming).
3 For the connections between Blathmac’s work and the Culdee movement, see Brian Lambkin, ‘Blathmac and the Céilí Dé: A Reappraisal’, Celtica 23 (1999), 132–54.
4 The Poems of Blathmac, son of Cú Brettan, ed. James Carney (Dublin, 1964), 17, stanzas 46–7.
5 Ibid. 19, stanza 49.
6 Ibid. 21, stanza 55–6.
7 See the poem Marthain duit a chroch an Choimhdhe: Lambert McKenna, ed., ‘To a Crucifix’, Irish Monthly 50 (1922), 117–19, 154–6, 209–10. This poem is discussed further below.
8 Blathmac, ed. Carney, 23, stanza 64.
9 Ibid. 37, stanza 105.
10 Ibid. 41, stanza 120.
11 Ibid. 43, stanza 121.
12 Ibid. 47, stanza 137.
13 Ibid. 49, stanza 142.
14 Ibid. 61, stanza 175.
15 Ibid., stanza 178.
16 Ibid., stanzas 178–9.
17 Chazelle, Celia, The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era: Theology and Art of Christ’s Passion (Cambridge, 2007), 23 Google Scholar.
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20 Ioannis Scotti Eriugenae: Carmina, ed. Michael Herren (Dublin, 1993), 59 (poem 1). See especially Richard Hawtree, ‘Christ on the Cross in Eriugena’s Carmina for Charles the Bald’, in Richard Hawtree, Juliet Mullins and Jenifer Ni Grádaigh, eds, Envisioning Christ on the Cross in the Early Medieval West: c.500–1200 (Turnhout, forthcoming).
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29 Blathmac, ed. Carney, 71, stanza 209.
30 Ioannis Scotti Eriugenae, ed. Herren, 67.
31 Ibid. 65.
32 McKenna, ed., ‘To a Crucifix’, 156, stanza 38.
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44 McKenna, Lambert, ed., Dán Dé (Dublin, 1922)Google Scholar, poem 3, stanzas 29–30.
45 McKenna, Lambert, ed., Philip Bocht Ó hUiginn (Dublin, 1931)Google Scholar, poem 5, stanza
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50 Ibid., stanza 44.
51 Itinerarium Symonis Semeonis ab Hybernia ad Terrain Sanctam, ed. Esposito, Mario (Dublin, 1960), 109 Google Scholar. The tenth-century Irish collection of religious verse known as Saltair na Rann, in its account of the death of Adam, recounted how the waves of the deluge carried Adam’s head to Jerusalem, where it remained at the gate of Jerusalem, and that later the cross of Christ was fixed in the body of Adam; see Herbert, Maire and McNamara, Martin, eds, Irish Biblical Apocrypha (Edinburgh, 1989), 16 Google Scholar.
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53 Ibid. 45.
54 An earlier form of the tradition, perhaps based on the Collectanea of Pseudo-Bede, identifies the trees as cedar, cypress, pine and beech; see McNamara, Martin, The Apocrypha in the Irish Church (Dublin, 1984), 76–7 Google Scholar.
55 Stokes, ‘Gaelic Maundeville’, 11.
56 McKenna, Lambert, ed., ‘The Bridge of Salvation’, Irish Monthly 58 (1930), 51–4 Google Scholar, at 51, stanza 9. This is a curious verse. There are two references in the Gospel of John to instances in which the Jews attempt to stone Jesus (John 8: 59; 10: 31–3). In the second, his opponents claim that they are stoning him on account of his blasphemy.
57 Ibid., stanzas 16–19.
58 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 5, stanza 7.
59 McKenna, ed., ‘To a Crucifix’, 250–3.
60 Ibid., stanza 1.
61 Ibid., stanza 3.
62 Ibid., stanza 5.
63 Ibid., stanza 6.
64 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 5, stanza 9.
65 Ibid., stanza 19.
66 McKenna, ed., Dán Dé, poem 3, stanza 10.
67 Ibid., stanza 13.
68 McKenna, ed., ‘To a Crucifix’, 250–3, stanza 8.
69 Ibid., stanzas 9–10.
70 Ibid., stanza 16. One of the fourteen merita missae (‘benefits of the mass’) found in the early fifteenth-century Irish manuscript Liber Flavus Fergusiorum (Dublin, RIA, MS 476) states that ‘if you go to Mass out of love and pray before the cross of crucifixion the doors of heaven will open to you and the doors of hell will close and all the demons will not be able to attack you’: Gearóid Mac Niocaill, ‘Disiecta Membra’, Éigse 8 (1955–7), 74–7, at 74–5.
71 McKenna, ed., ‘To a Crucifix’, 250–3, stanza 17.
72 McKenna, ed., Dán Dé, poem 28, stanza 21.
73 McKenna, ed., ‘To a Crucifix’, 250–3, stanzas 19, 20, 23, 24.
74 McKenna, ed., Dán Dé poem 3, stanza 18; poem 16, stanza 17.
75 Ibid., poem 27, stanza 3.
76 Aingil, Aodh Mac, Scáthán Shacramuinte na hAithridhe, ed. Maonaigh, Cainneach Ó (Dublin, 1952), 40 Google Scholar.
77 McKenna, Lambert, ed., Aithdioghluim Dána, 2 vols (Dublin, 1939–40), vol. 2 Google Scholar, poem 78, stanza 33.
78 Ibid., stanza 34.
79 Uallacháin, Íde Ni, Exempla Gaeilge (Maynooth, 2004), 122–3 Google Scholar.
80 See Ryan, Salvador, ‘Reaping a Rich Harvest of Humanity: Images of Redemption in Irish Bardic Religious Poetry’, in Leahy, Brendan and O’Connell, Seanius, eds, Having Life in his Name: Living, Thinking and Communicating the Christian Life of Faith (Dublin, 2011), 239–52 Google Scholar.
81 McKenna, ed., Aithdioghluim Dána, poem 77, stanzas 35, 37.
82 Ibid., stanza 27.
83 Ibid., poem 88, stanza 6.
84 Ibid., stanza 9.
85 Ibid., stanza 17.
86 Ibid., stanza 19.
87 Ibid., stanza 20.
88 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 5, stanza 21.
89 Ibid., stanza 22.
90 See, e.g., the story of Eibhlín Dubh Ni Chonaill, in Tuama, Sean Ó, ed., Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (Dublin, 1961), 35 Google Scholar; also a fifteenth-century account of the actions of Deirdre lamenting the death of her husband Naoise with the words ‘“Let me kiss my husband”. And she took to kissing Naoise and drinking his blood, and she uttered this lay’: Bromwich, Rachel, ‘The Keen for Art O’Leary’, Eigse 5 (1945–7), 236–52 Google Scholar, at 249. For an extended discussion of this motif, see Ryan, Salvador, ‘Popular Religion in Gaelic Ireland, 1445–1645’, 2 vols (Ph.D. thesis, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 2002), 2: 172–9 Google Scholar.
91 Skerrett, R. A. Q., ‘Two Irish Translations of the Liber de Passione Christi’ , Celtica 6 (1963), 82–117 Google Scholar, at 109.
92 Dioghluim Dana, ed. Cionnaith, Láimhbheartach Mac (Dublin, 1938 Google Scholar), poem 2, stanza 3.
93 Rubin, Miri, Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary (New Haven, CT, 2009) 105–6 Google Scholar.
94 McKenna, ed., Aithdioghluim Dána, poem 67, stanza 8.
95 Ibid., stanza 18.
96 Ibid., stanza 25.
97 Ibid., poem 93, stanza 6. This is reminiscent, of course, of the Virgin’s sheltering of sinners beneath her cloak, a favourite late medieval image.
98 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 5, stanza 52; see Ryan, Salvador, ‘The Persua sive Power of a Mother’s Breast: The Most Desperate Act of the Virgin Mary’s Advocacy’, Studia Hibernica 32 (2002–3), 59–74 Google Scholar.
99 McKenna, ed., Aithdioghluim Dána, poem 88, stanza 3.
100 Ibid., poem 98, stanza 20.
101 Ibid., poem 63, stanza 29.
102 Ibid., poem 77, stanza 4.
103 Ibid., stanza 11.
104 Ibid., poem 63, stanza 2; also poem 65, stanza 29.
105 Ibid., poem 65, stanza 30.
106 Ibid., stanza 21. The ‘Six generations’ refers to the six ages of the world’s history and the people who had lived in them.
107 McKenna, ed., Dán Dé, poem 27, stanza 24.
108 Itinerarium Symonis Semeonis, ed. Esposito, 65.
109 McKenna, ed., Dán Dé, poem 27, stanza 36.
110 Blathmac, ed. Carney, poem 21, stanza 13.