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Ritual Purity and the Influence of Gregory the Great in the Early Middle Ages*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Rob Meens
Rob Meens*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Utrecht
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Extract

Unity and diversity form a theme which Gregory the Great addressed in his famous set of answers to Augustine of Canterbury. Augustine had asked the Pope:

Even though the faith is one, are there varying customs in the churches? and is there one form of mass in the Holy Roman Church and another in the Churches of Gaul?

To this, the Pope replied:

My brother, you know the customs of the Roman Church in which, of course, you were brought up. But it is my wish that if you have found any customs in the Roman or the Gaulish church or any other church which may be more pleasing to Almighty God, you should make a careful selection of them and sedulously teach the Church of the English, which is still new in the faith, what you have been able to gather from other churches. For things are not to be loved for the sake of a place, but places are to be loved for the sake of their good things. Therefore choose from every individual Church whatever things are devout, religious, and right. And when you have collected these as it were into one pot, put them on the English table for their use.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 32: Unity and Diversity in the Church , 1996 , pp. 31 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1996

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Mary Garrison and Mayke de Jong for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.

References

1 Translation taken from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynon, rev. ed. (Oxford, 1992) [hereafter Bedc, HE], pp. 81-3. The last sentence reads differently in Bede, who incorporates this text in bk i, 27. The original text of the Libellus with translation is given ibid., p. 82, n.l; cf. J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. A Historical Commentary (Oxford, 1988), p. 40.

2 S. Brechter, Die Quellen zur Angelsachsenmission Gregors des Grossen: eine historiographische Studie, Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktincrordens, 22 (Münster, 1941); Meyvaert, Paul, ‘Diversity within unity, a Gregorian theme’, in his Benedict, Gregory, Bede and others (London, 1977)Google Scholar, no. 6 [originally in Heythrop Journal, 4 (1963), pp. 141-62], cf. Henry Chadwick, ‘Gregory the Great and the mission to the Anglo-Saxons’, in Gregorio Magno e il suo tempo: XIX Incontro di studiosi dell’antichità cristiana in collaborazione con l’Ecole Française de Rome, 9–12 maggio 1990, Studio Ephemeridis ‘Augustinianum’, 33, 2 vols (Rome, 1991), 1, pp. 199-212, esp. pp. 207-12.

3 Angenendt, Arnold, Das Frühmittelalter. Die abendländische Christenheit von 400 bis 900 (Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne, 1990), p. 346 Google Scholar: ‘Die Auskunft der “Responsa” gait offenbar als zu lax und fand bei nicht einem einzigen frühmittelalterichen Autor Gehör’; cf. idem, ‘“Mit reinen Händen”. Das Motiv der kultischen Reinheit in der abendländischen Askesc’, in Georgjenal, ed., Herrschaft, Kirche, Kultur, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Mittelalters. Festschrift für Friedrich Prinz zu seinem 65. Geburtstag (Stuttgart, 1993), pp. 297-316, esp. p. 304; Jean-Louis Flandrin, Un temps pour embrasser. Aux origines de la morale sexuelle occidentale (VI-XI siècle) (Paris, 1983), p. 81: ‘la doctrine de Grégoire le Grand n’apparaît guère dans nos pénitentiels’. The continuing tension between the two poles is noticed by Franz Kohlschcin, ‘Die Vorstellung der kultischen Unreinheit der Frau. Das weiterwirkende Motiv für eine zwiespaltige Situation?’ in Teresa Berger and Albert Gerhards, eds., Liturgie und Frauenfrage. Bin Beitrag zur Frauenforschung aus liturgieu’issenschaftticher Sicht (St Ottilien, 1990), pp. 269-88, esp. pp. 277-9. See p. 279: ‘Die Spannung zwischen beiden Polen bleibt erhalten, und in den Quellen liegt der Akzent mal auf der einen, mal auf der anderen Auffassung.’

4 See letter 33, Briefe des Bonifatius, Willibalds Leben des Bonifatius, nebst einigen zeitgenossischen Dokumenten, ed. Reinhold Rau, Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters: Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe, 4b (Darmstadt, 1968), p. 110.

5 Paul Meyvaert, ‘Bede’s text of the Libellus Responsionum of Gregory the Great to Augustine of Canterbury’, in his Benedict, Gregory, Bede and others, no. 10 [originally in P. Clemoes and Hughes, K., eds, England before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources Presented to Dorothy Whitelock (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 15—33 Google Scholar]. The same author is preparing a critical edition of the Libellus: see his ‘Le Libellus Responsionum à Augustin de Cantorbéry: une oeuvre authentique de Saint Grégoire le Grand’, in J. Fontaine et al., eds, Grégoire le Grand. Colloques internationaux du C.N.R.S.: Chantilly, Centre culturel Les Fontaines, 15-19 September 1982 (Paris, 1986), pp. 543-9, esp. p. 543, n. 1.

6 Bede, HE, i, 22, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 68: ‘Qui inter alia inenarrabilium scelerum facta, quae historicus eorum Gildas flebili sermone describit, et hoc addebant, ut numquam genti Saxonum siuc Anglorum, secum Brittaniam incolenti, uerbum fidei praedicando committerent.’ Cf. T. M. Charles-Edwards, ‘Bede, the Irish and the Britons’, Celtica, 15 (1983), pp. 42-52.

7 Rob Meens, ‘A Background to Augustine’s mission to Anglo-Saxon England’, Anglo-Saxon England, 22 (1994), pp. 5-17.

8 He takes the same stance concerning the observance of Sunday, see D. Norberg, ed., S. Gregorii Magni. Registrum Epistularum Libri VIII-XIV, Appendix, CChr. SL 140A (1982), XIII, 1, pp. 991-3.

9 Bede, HE, i, 27, resp. VIII, pp. 90-1.

10 Ibid., pp. 94-5.

11 Resp. IX, ibid., pp. 98-9.

12 Resp. VIII, ibid. pp. 94-5: ‘Sicut enim in Testamento ueteri exteriora opera obseruantur, ita in Testamento nouo non tarn quod exterius agitur quam id quod interim cogitatur.’

13 Resp. VIII, ibid., pp. 92-3.

14 Resp. VIII. ibid., pp. 94-6.

15 Resp. IX, ibid., pp. 98-103.

16 Paenitentìale Theodori. Discipulus Umbrensium [hereafter P. Theod. U] II, xii, 3, ed. Paul Willem Finsterwalder, Die Cationes Theodori Cantuañensis und ihre Überlieferungsformen (Weimar, 1929) [hereafter Finsterwalder], p. 326. On the penitential of Theodore and its complicated textual transmission, see R. Kottje, ‘Paenitentiale Theodori’, in Handworterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte, 3 (Berlin, 1984), cols 1413-16, to be supplemented with M. M. Woesthuis, ‘A note on two manuscripts of the “Penitentiale Theodori” from the library of De Thou’, Sacris Emdiri 34 (1994), pp. 175-84.

17 See Paenitentiak Cummeani, II, 31, in Ludwig Bieler, ed., The Irish Penitentiah, with an appendix by D. A. Binchy, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 5 (Dublin, 1963) [hereafter Bieler], p. 116; the Collectio Hibernensis, XLVI, 11, ed. F. W. H. Wasserschleben, Die irische Kanonensammlung, 2nd edn (Leipzig, 1885), pp. 187-8; and for the Liber ex Lege Moysis, see Raymund Kottje, Studien zum Einfluss des Alten Testamentes auf Recht und Liturgie des früheren Mittelalters (6.-8. Jahrhundert), Bonner Historische Forschungen 23, 2nd edn (Bonn, 1970), p. 78.

18 P. Theod. U, I, xiv, 18, ed. Finsterwalder, p. 309.

19 P. Theod. U, I, xiv, 17-18, ed. Finsterwalder, p. 308. Cf. P. Theodori. Canones Cregorii, cc. 125-6, ibid., p. 265; P. Theodori. Capitula Dacheriana, cc. 42 and 122, ibid., pp. 243 and 249; P. Theodori. Canones Cottoniani, cc. 106-6, ibid., p. 278; P. Theodori. Canones Basilienses, c. 43a-b, ed. Franz Bernd Asbach, Das Poenitentiale Remense und der sogen. Excarpsus Cummeani: Überlieferung, Quellen und Entwicklung zweier kontinentaler Bußbücher aus der 1. Halfte des 8. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg, 1975), ‘Anhang’, p. 83.

20 See Rob Meens, ‘Pollution in the early Middle Ages; the case of the food regulations in penitentials’, Early Medieval Europe, 4 (1995), pp. 3-19, esp. 9.

21 Mayr-Harting, H., The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd edn (London, 1991), p. 122 Google Scholar. Cf. pp. 169-70 for the growth of Byzantine influence in Rome after the period of Gregory the Great and footnote 3 for the role Vitalian played in this process.

22 The earliest Life of Gregory, for example, was written in England; see Bertram Colgrave, ‘The earliest Life of St. Gregory the Great, written by a Whitby monk’, in Kenneth Jackson and others, Cell and Saxon: Studies in the Early British Border (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 119-37.

23 Finsterwalder, pp. 253-70.

24 Finsterwalder, p. 217: ‘Nicht durch Zufall, sondern mit voller Absicht ist daher die ganze Theodorüberlieferung mit diesen Interrogationes Augustini eng verknüpft bis zur direkten Aufnahme in eine Überlieferungsform [= Vienna, Üsterreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS lat. 2195] hinein.’

25 BN, MS latin 3182, see Finsterwalder, p. 13, and the recent description of the MS in Reinhold Haggenmüller, Die Überlieferung der Beda und Egbert zugeschriebenen Bußbücher (Frankfurt a. M. and Berne, etc., 1991), p. 92.

26 Libellus in: BL, MS Add. 16413 (see Letha Mahadevan, ‘Überlieferung und Verbreitung des Bussbuchs “Capitula Iudiciorum”’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Kan. Abt. 72 [1986], pp. 17-75, esp. pp. 24-8); BN, MS latin 3848 B (ibid., p. 31); and Prague, Knihovna prazké kapituly, MS O LXXXIII (Hubert Mordek, Kirchenrecht und Reform im Frankenreich. Die Collectio Vetus Gallica, die ätteste systematische Kanonessammlung des fränkischen Gallien. Studien und Edition (Berlin and New York, 1975], p. 223, n. 38); the Libellus follows directly on Theodore in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14780 (Finsterwalder, p. 30); both texts are intertwined in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. 311 (see Ludger Korntgen, Studien zu den Quellen der frühmittelalterlichen Bußbücher, Quellen und Forschungen zum Recht im Mittelalter, 7 [Sigmaringen, 1993], p. 91).

27 For the manuscript tradition of P. Theod. U, see Rob Meens, Het tripartite boeteboek. Overlevering en betekenis van vroegmiddeleeuwse biechtvoorschriften {met editie en vertaling van vier ‘tripartita’) (Hilversum, 1994), p. 34, n.49. The following MSS contain P. Theod. U and the Libellus: Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preuss. Kulturbesitz, Hamilton 132 (H) (s. IX in., Corbie); Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 10127-44 (s. VIII/IX, northeastern part of France or Belgium); Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 320 (s. XI-XII, England); Cologne, Dombibliothek, 91 (C) (s. VIII/IX, Burgundy or near Corbie); London, BL, MS Add. 16413 (s. XI in., southern Italy); Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 22288 (s. XII1, Windberg near Straubing); Paris, BN, MS latin 1603 (s. VIII-IX, northern France); Stuttgart, Württcmbergische Landesbibliothek, HB VI, 109 (s. IX 1/3, southwest Germany, maybe Constanz); Stuttgart, Wiirttembergische Landesbibliothek, HB VI, 112 (s. X, near Bodensee); Vesoul, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 73 (s. X/XI); Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, latin 2195 (s. VIII ex., Salzburg); Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, latin 2223 (s. IX 1/3, from a ‘mainfränkisches’ scriptorium).

28 Mordek, Kirchenrecht, p. 217; for the Corbie redaction, see pp. 86-94.

29 Excarpsus Cummeani, III, 14-15, ed. H. J. Schmitz, Die Bussbücher und das kanonische Bussverfahren (Düsseldorf, 1898) [reprint: Graz, 1958] (hereafter Schmitz II), p. 614. The canons are explicitly attributed to Theodore.

30 For the Floriacense, see Raymund dottje, ed., Paenitentialia minora Franciae et Italiae saeculi VIII-IX, CChr. SL 156 (1994), p. 102; for the Bigotianum, Bieler, p. 222; for Remense, Asbach, Das Poenitentiale Remense, ‘Anhang’, p. 37; for the Vindobonense B and the Parisiense compositum, Meens, Het tripartite boeteboek, pp. 398, 502; for the Martenianum, see W. von Hürmann, ‘Bußbücherstudien IV, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kan. Abt., 4 (1914), pp. 358-483, at pp. 468-9; for ‘Pseudo-Theodore’, see F. W. H. Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche (Halle, 1851) [hereafter Wasserschleben], p. 577.

31 Together with the Vindobonense B in Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS Latin 2233, see Meens, Het tripartite boeteboek, p. 109. With the P. Capitula ludiciorum in BL, MS Add. 16413 (s. XI in., southern Italy), St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, cod. 150 (pp. 273-322) (s. VIII/IX or IX in., St Gall), and Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS Latin 2223 (olim iur. can. 116) (s. IX in., ‘Maingebied’), see Mahadevan, ‘Überlieferung’, pp. 25-8, 35, 44-5. For the connection with Halitgar and the penitentials attributed to Bede and Egbert, see R. Kottje, Die Bussbilcher Halitgars von Cambrai und des Hrabanus Maurus. Ihre Überlieferung und ihre Quellen, Beitrage zur Geschichte und Quellenkunde des Mittelalters, 8 (Berlin and New York, 1980), pp. 14-83 and Haggenmüller, Die Überlieferung, pp. 51-116.

32 On the relationship between these two penitentials, see Meens, Het tripartite boeteboek, pp. 157–75.

33 P. Capitula Iudicorum X, 5, ed. Meens, Het tripartite boeteboek, p. 450.

34 P. Merseburgense A, c.89–90, in Kottje, Paenttentialia minora, pp. 152-3; in the Vienna MS of this text (Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Latin 2225) the text is changed in such a way that it says exactly the opposite of what the other MSS say.

35 P. Ps.-Gregorii, c. XXV, ed. Franz Kerff, ‘Das Paenitentiale Pseudo-Gregorii. Eine kritische Edition’, in Hubert Mordek, ed., Aus Archiven una Bibliotheken. Festschrift für Raymund Kottje zum 65. Geburtstag (Frankfurt a. M., Berne, etc., 1992), pp. 161-88. esp. pp. 182-3. Gent, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS 506, omits the Gregorian material. This section of the P. Ps.-Gregorii was adopted in the canonical collection in nine books (Vat. latin 1349); see Pierre J. Payer, Sex and the Penitentials. The Development of a Sexual Code, 550-1150 (Toronto, 1984), pp. 96-7.

36 P. Ps.-Theodori, II (17), 2, ed. Wasscrchleben, p. 577.

37 Ibid., XVI (31), 14, ed. Wasserechleben, pp. 602-3.

38 Jonas of Orléans, De institutione laicali, II, x-xi, PL 106, cols 186-8.

39 Although in practice the ritual could express a variety of meanings; see David Cressy, ‘Purification, thanksgiving and the churching of women in post-reformation England’, PaP, 141 (1993), pp. 106-46, esp. pp. 111 and 144-6.

40 Cf. Flandrin, Vn temps pour embrasser, p. 81; Angenendt, Das Friihmittelalter, p. 346; Meens, ‘Pollution’.

41 See the remarks on the confusion of modern historians in Pierre J. Payer, ‘The humanism of the penitentials and the continuity of the penitential tradition’, Mediaeval Studies, 46 (1984), pp. 340–54; and Alexander Murray, ‘Confession before 1215’, TRHS, ser. 6, 3 (1993), pp. 51-81, at p. 62. I cannot agree, however, with Murray’s pessimistic view on the frequency of auricular confession in the early medieval period.

42 Bede, HE, i, 30, ed. Colgravc and Mynors, pp. 106-8. Sec R. A. Markus, ‘Gregory the Great and a papal missionary strategy’, SCH 6 (1970), pp. 29-38.