Jesse Tree Wood: Trunk, Vine, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit-Part 3 Addendum

          I was looking back to see if I was putting together the foundation stones for the elaborate legends of the Holy Cross as they develop in the 13th century onward. There were several items that needed either emphasis or additional material.

         Earlier I mentioned Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem who writing about 350 mentioned that wood from the Cross was in Jerusalem.

       It was Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who composed an oration De Obitu Theodosii in 395 who seems to make the first mention of Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, as the finder of the cross. It is Helena who goes to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, to look for the lignum crucis.(http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/0339-0397,  Ambrosius,_De_Obitu_Theodosii_Oratio,_MLT.pdf) It was Helen that gave the nails of the crucifixion to her son to be used to make a bit, and another to be added to a diadem.
       
         Now, it is hard to know if Rufinus writing about 6 or so years later knew about Ambrose's funeral oration when he added the story of Helen and the Cross to Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, or if both men were using the same unknown source for this addition to the story of finding the True Cross. In any case, I realized that I had given Rufinus only a passing mention, and there is little doubt that his works were known in Anglo-Saxon England.

          Rufinus of Aquileia, also called Tyrannius Rufinus, was born about 344 in the city of Julia Concordia at the head of the Adriatic Sea.   In his mid-20s, he traveled to Alexandria and the eastern Mediterranean to study.  During this time he acquired a patroness, Melania, a wealthy Christian widow from Rome.  She eventually moved to Palestine, and with Rufinus, founded a monastery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  Rufinus moved between Jerusalem, Rome, Aquileia, and Sicily. He studied Christian theology in Greek.  He was a contemporary of Jerome.  He is not as well known as Jerome, lacking Jerome's writing style.  Both of them introduced to the western Latin speaking Church, the great trove of Greek learning, that was otherwise unknown in an area where Greek was virtually unknown.  Rufinus left Rome because of the incursions of the Goths and died in Sicily in 411. In England, at least, translations by Rufinus were attributed to Jerome.  (See Aelfric’s homily for the Exaltation of the Cross, for example.  More on this later.)

       Rufinus did very little original writing.  He was primarily a translator, who thought nothing of editing and revising the material he was translating.  Rufinus began translating Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History in 401 at the request of Bishop Chromatius of Aquileia. The translation was often quite free, more a paraphrase of Eusebius' work.  He shortened the original text quite freely. (Rufinus of Aquilea (Author), Philip R. Amidon, tr. and ed. The Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia: Books 10 and 11(1997) Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.vii-xiii, 16-8),

       Rufinus wrote  a simple version of Helena's finding of the crosses.Sec. 10.7.  Helena, the emperor Constantine's mother, is described as "matchless in faith, devotion, and singular generosity." (p.16)  She is instructed by a vision to travel to Jerusalem to the site of the Crucifixion, now covered by a temple to Venus.  She orders the removal of all that is "profane and defiled."  When all the rubble is removed, three crosses are discovered "jumbled together."  Not being able to identify the true cross even after the inscription was found, it is Bishop Macarius who suggests that God will show them the true cross by healing a woman of high station who was near death.  Sec 10.8 continues with the prayer of Bishop Macarius.  He then touches the woman with the first two pieces of wood and she remains very ill.  When he touches her with the three cross, she was immediately healed.  She opened he eyes, got up, and ran about the house glorifying the Lord. (p.17)  Helena then presented some of the wood to her son.  The rest she put into silver reliquaries and left in Jerusalem.  The nails of the crucifixion Helena also gave to her son.  Some went into a bridle and the remainder were placed in a battle helmet. The helmet/diadem part of the story is repeated in Cassiodorus' Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita.

   Copies of the Rufinus' translation of Eusebius' Ecclesiatica Historia in England before 1100 (From Gneuss and Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts)

1. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Library 187.  11th or 12th century, prob. made at Christ Church, Canterbury.  
2. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Library 192.  mid 10th century, Landevannec (Brittainy). In England at Canterbury by mid 10th century at Christ Church or St. Augustine's.(excerpt only of Historia)
3. Cambridge, Pembroke College 108.  Excerpts from Book 10, sec. 1-14 (that includes the finding of the Cross) mid 9th century France.  In England at Bury St. Edmunds.
4. Worcester Cathedral Library, Q.28. mid 9th century France.  In England by mid 10th or 11th century at Canterbury. Provenance Worcester.
5. Fragment now at Vienna Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, series nova 3644.  Made probably in north England in 8th century.
6. Almost certainly other copies were known in Anglo-Saxon England.  

     

       

Jesse Tree Wood: Trunk, Vine, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit-Part 6

Altar cross with gems or crux gemmata, made in Belgium, about 1250. From the workshop of Hugo de Oignies.  In Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Museum number 244-1874.

          http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2008BU/2008BU7208_jpg_ds.jpg 

  

          Though I keep mentioning the Dream of the Rood, I seriously doubt that many people, with the exception of those few who might read this blog, have even heard of the poem, let alone know how to read it in Old English.  (I may be able to figure out a few words.  I am not facile with language and so learning Old English is really hard for me.)  Given its Christian theme, it is not taught in school anymore.  Without a special interest in things Insular-Saxon and early medieval, it is mostly unknown now.  

         The only complete version is found in second half of the 10^th or early 11^th century manuscript that was found in the cathedral library of Vercelli Cathedral in Piedmont, northern Italy.  How the rather large manuscript, made in England, came to be lodged in Italy where it was found in the 19^th century is still not known.  None of the proposed theories including one that somehow the manuscript came into the possession of Bishop Jacopo Guala Bicchieri (d. 1227) who had been papal legate in England 1216–1218 explains the journey the manuscript made from England to Italy.  Bishop Bicchieri founded a rest place or hostel for English pilgrims in Vercelli.  The manuscript is rather heavy for a pilgrim to carry for personal use.  The writing of the Vercelli book is in square miniscule and was copied from earlier texts.  The composition date is before the 10^th century and probably much earlier, perhaps in the 8^th century.  The runic text on the Ruthwell cross quotes lines that are very similar, but not quite identical, to the version of Dream of the Rood found in the Vercelli manuscript.  In addition, the inscription on the Brussels Cross made during the 11^th century in northern England but now housed in Belgium also bears great similarity to lines from the Dream of the Rood.  The inscription in translation reads, “Rood is my name.  Trembling once, I bore a powerful king, made wet with blood.”[1] The Dream of the Rood may have had several oral versions before it was written down.

The opening lines of the Dream of the Rood as they appear in the Vercilli manuscript.

http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/oecoursepack/rood/images/ver104b.jpg

          A digital version of the text is found at: http://vbd.humnet.unipi.it/beta/#104v

          Numerous online translations include:  http://www.dreamofrood.co.uk/frame_start.htm

http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/oecoursepack/rood/translations/hamer.html

http://lightspill.com/poetry/oe/rood.html

http://www.apocalyptic-theories.com/literature/dor/medora1.html

http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/World_Literature/British/Old_English/Individual_Poems/Dream_of_the_Rood/

http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/oecoursepack/rood/index.html

            

         The poem is set in the frame work of a dream that the poet had at night when all is quiet.  In the first part of the poem, the poet dreams of a beautiful gem-covered cross of gold applied over wood.  Beneath the gold and jewels, a crux gemmata, is the real blood stained cross on which Jesus was crucified.  The Saxons did not practice crucifixion as a form of punishment, and so the cross was unknown to pagan Saxons, though the gallows was used for capital punishment.  The dreamer at first compares the cross to the gallows that has become a victory-beam.  The dreamer is “stained with sins, wounded with wickedness.”  The dreamer saw “the tree of glory adorned with drapery, shining with joys, decked with gold; gems had worthily wrapped the All-Wielder's tree.” [Note: I am borrowing freely from the translation of Eleanor Parker, PhD as it appears on her blog, A Clerk of Oxford, http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.co.uk/.  I am no linguist but I relish her neologisms that attempt to give one a sense of the constructed words of the original Old English.]  Beneath the fairness of the crux gemmata, the dreamer sees the cross bleeding from its right side.  This recalls the piercing of Jesus’ side by a Roman soldier as told in John 19.34.  Frequently it is Jesus’ right side that is shown as pierced in Christian iconography, but crucifixes and drawings of the Crucifixion in manuscripts of northern Europe date from a couple of centuries later than the composition of Dream of the Rood. (The earliest crucifix in northern Europe is the Gero Crucifix in Cologne Cathedral made about 965-70.[2])  The dreamer’s vision shifts between the bejeweled cross and the bloody gore when the cross speaks.

Crucifixion of Jesus with St. Mary and St. John. British Library Harley 2904 f. 3v. Ramsey Psalter. Made 980-1000 in Winchester, south England probably for use in the Benedictine monastery of Ramsey. This appears to be the oldest manuscript crucifixion scene made in England.  It has many features the recall the Utrecht Psalter made in the 9th century in Europe.  The drapery style referred to as "agitated" is typical of  Winchester. http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/NOF/big/033HRL000002904U00003V00.jpg

           

        The cross speaks as an old man recalling the memory of being cut down and carried on men’s shoulders until it was affixed to a hill.  The Cross sees Jesus, the Savior of the world as a young hero who embraces his crucifixion with resolve as a ransom for mankind.  Unlike the cross of Venantius Fortunatus’ poem that is asked to relax its sinews, the Cross of the Dream is firm and steadfast.  The cross could have “felled all those enemies” that crucified the “young lord” “but stood fast.”  Christ is the young triumphant warrior even when humiliated with death upon a cross.  “I trembled when that man [Christ] embraced me, yet I dared not bow to the earth, fall to earth's fields; I had to stand fast.” (quotations again Dr. Parker’s translation)  The cross raised up the Lord, the noble king.  The Cross then spoke of the unhealing wounds of malice created by the nails used for the Crucifixion .  The Cross was drenched in the blood of Jesus before he died.  The Cross watched as “All creation wept, lamented the king’s fall. Christ was on the cross.”  The steadfast cross is forsaken by the soldiers, left alone, wounded and wet, while the body of the dead (limb-weary) Jesus awaited burial.

         In the poem there is the tension between the beauty of the gold and jeweled cross and the  rough, grim, bloody wooden cross.  There is also the tension between the solidity of the dead wooden cross, the instrument of death, and the weakness, fear, and trembling that the living cross experiences as a sentient being, aware of the pain, suffering and sacrifice of Jesus.  Father G. Ronald Murphy, SJ, refers to this as a "double identity."  Father Murphy refers to this as an especially Germanic feature where the cross as gallows is contrasted with the "compassionate and so-suffering tree of rescue."  It is the trembling and suffering wood that recalled the long-suffering world tree Yggdrasil of Nordic myth. (G. Ronald Murphy, SJ.  Tree of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross of the North. (2013) Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 125-153.)

            The Cross watched the sepulcher being dug and the body placed there before the Resurrection.  Then the poet reveals that he knows the story of the discovery of the cross by Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine.  The Cross is cut down and thrown in a deep pit where it was buried.  Later the cross was found by friends and servants of the Lord who dug up the cross and adorned the remnants with gold and silver.  The Cross went on to say that once an instrument of cruel torture and death, the Cross is now an instrument of healing.  The Cross orders the dreamer to reveal the dream:

     that you tell men about this vision:

     reveal with words that it is the tree of glory

     on which almighty God suffered

     for mankind's many sins

     and Adam's ancient deeds.

     Death he tasted there; nevertheless, the Lord rose again

     with his great might to help mankind.

     He ascended into heaven. He will come again

     to this earth to seek mankind.           

     on doomsday, the Lord himself,

     almighty God, and his angels with him,

     so that he will then judge, he who has the power of judgement,

     each one of them, for what they themselves have

     earned here earlier in this transitory life.  (Elaine Treharne translation)

            The third section returns to the poet’s prayers and hopes for a place in Paradise.

                             and I for myself expect

     each of my days the time when the Lord’s rood,

     which I here on earth formerly saw,

     from this loaned life will fetch me away

     and bring me then where is much bliss,

     joy in the heavens, where the Lord’s folk

     is seated at feast, where is bliss everlasting;

     and set me then where I after may

     dwell in glory, well with those saints

     delights to enjoy. May he be friend to me

     who here on earth earlier died

     on that gallows-tree for mankind’s sins.

     He loosed us and life gave,

     a heavenly home…(Glenn translation)

            The splendor of a Saxon hall is recalled in Dream of the Rood, far different from a first century cooking fire of one-roomed house in dusty Palestine.  The cross became a powerful and deeply influential image in Saxon art and poetry.  The cross was the promise of salvation at death and the messenger that:

     will fetch me    from this feeble life

     and bring me    to where there is great bliss,

     joy in heaven,    to join the Lord's people

     always sitting    in unceasing bliss.  (Leech translation)

            The vines and trunks of Jesse Trees of the 12^th century onward are luxuriant with their leaves, flowers, fruit, in various combinations.  They are not the solid shaft of high crosses.  They are not the tree cross of the hero young warrior.  But they do draw upon the ancient idea of the cross as tree of life.

            In the British Library is a manuscript psalter made in Winchester, England after 1073 or so but before 1099 with a drawing of the Crucifixion with Sts. Mary and John that has a rough-hewn green wooden cross.  I do not intend to follow that path just yet.  This was just a reminder that the cross of death is also the tree of life.

British Library. Arundel Psalter f. 12v.  Made about 1060 at Winchester, England.

http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/NOF/big/011ARU000000060U00012V00.jpg

            The Vita Adae et Evae (Life of Adam and Eve) in Latin dates from the 10th century.[3]  It was originally a Jewish legend the extended the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall.  It continued the story until Adam’s and Eve’s deaths and the writing of their lives by Seth on stellae.  The parts of the story include:

a.      Adam and Eve after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden,

b.     Penitence of Adam in the Jordan River and Eve in the Tigris river,

c.      Adam blames Eve for the Fall and the birth of Cain,

d.     The death of Abel,

e.      Adam’s version of the expulsion with the vision of archangel Michael from the Garden of Eden as told to Seth,

f.      Adam at age 930 years as he is ill and death approaches,

g.     Adam’s short version of the Fall as told to his children,

h.     Adam in pain commands Eve and Seth to get him the oil of mercy from the Tree of Life,

i.       Eve and Seth encounter the serpent and Seth is bitten,

j.       Arrival at Paradise where Eve and Seth beg Archangel Michael of the Oil of Mercy, and Michael’s refusal,

k.     Return to Adam with spices nard, crocus, calaminth, and cinnamon.  Depending of the version they also may have branches as well.

l.       The death of Adam.  God gives his soul to Michael until Judgement Day.

m.   The burial of Adam and Abel,

n.     Death of Eve and her funeral,

o.     The recording of the life of Adam and Eve,

p.     A final potpourri of stories about the nature of Adam, the formation of Adam from soil brought by the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel from the four corners of the earth to Bethlehem, and the naming of Adam.[4]  These are not in all versions.

            One part of the legend gets carried over in the Legend of the (Holy) Rood or De ligno sancte crucis, and therefore of particular interest when tracing the origins of the wood of the Jesse Tree.  I am skipping ahead with the rood legends and then I will come back to the finding of the Cross in the homilies of Aelfric and poem  Elene, even though both are older that the Legend of the Rood.

            Usually the first part of the story of the multipart story is about Seth, the son of Adam, seeking the oil of Mercy for his dying father.  When Adam was old and in pain at aged 930 years, he sent Eve and his son Seth back to the gates of Paradise to beg for oil from the Tree of Mercy to anoint himself and ease the pain.  Adam commands Eve, “Rise, go with my son, Seth, near to the gates of paradise and cast dust on your heads, and prostrate yourself on the ground,lamenting in the sight of God.  Perhaps he will take pity and send his angel over to the tree of his mercy from which flows the oil of life, and will give you a little of it with which to anoint me so that I may have rest from these pains with which I am consumed.”[5]

            The angel Michael met them and did not give them the requested oil.  Instead, they were given a branch and sweet smelling spices.  Adam died and his children mourned him.  Then Seth saw the hand of God give the body of Adam to the angel Michael.  The angels Michael and Uriel buried Adam and his son Abel in Paradise.  Six days later Eve died.  Seth and his brothers and sisters mourned her for only six days because of the instruction from the angel Michael.  Another version of this tale has Seth looking into Paradise and seeing in a large tree at the center of the garden the Virgin and infant Jesus.  Upon Seth’s reporting this sight to his dying father, Adam exclaims, “Blessed are you, O Lord, for now I know truly that a virgin will conceive a son who will die on the cross, whence we shall all be saved.”[6]

        
          One such story is in the Holy Rood legend(s) dating perhaps from the 11th century and found in a 12th century vernacular Old English manuscript at the Bodleian Library (Bodley 343), Oxford.[7] The story starts with Moses finding three rods/trees in the desert after the Red Sea crossing.  He was asleep and three rods sprung up during the night.  One was at his head and one was at his right and left.  The trees are cypress, pine, and cedar.  At first, Moses is afraid of the wood.  Another version has Moses recognizing the three wands as a symbol of the Trinity.  After Moses discovers that the rods have to power to sweeten bitter water, he takes the three rods with him.  David carried the trees to Jerusalem where they were placed in a pool of bitter water.  The three become one mighty tree that grew in David’s garden, and, on which, David hung 30 silver hoops.  Solomon cut down the tree to use in building the Temple but the wood was always the wrong length.  The wood would get longer or shorter than what was needed.  So the tree was put in the Temple.  The thirty silver hoops were made into thirty plates that hung in the temple.  The silver eventually came to Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, as 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26.15).  The tree remained in the Temple in Jerusalem and many miracles were associated with it.  Eventually Caiaphas ordered that three hundred men get the tree to make the cross for Jesus.  None of the three hundred men could move the tree.  So, a section of wood was cut from the tree for the cross for Jesus. 

        
          The Legend of the Holy Rood picks up later with Helena, the mother on Constantine, coming to Jerusalem.  She went into the temple and saw wood there that was left from the cross that had previously been made for Jesus.  She was told by a voice of an angel to cut the remaining wood into four pieces, each 10 ells in length.  These four pieces were to be sent to the four corners of the earth.  Helen found the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion and the cross on which the robber was crucified,  the wood was carried with great honor to Constantinople.[8]  When Helena entered the city, a dead man was brought to her, and he was made alive by the wood from the true cross.

        
          A week later, Constantine went to Jerusalem.  Helena gave him two pieces of the Holy Cross.  One piece went to Jerusalem, one piece to Alexandria, one piece to Rome with Pope Silvester, and the final piece went to Constantinople.  Three days after the finding of the Cross, Judas, the Jew who helped Helena find the Holy Rood, gave Helena the five nails used in the crucifixion of Jesus. An angel again come to Helena and told her to make a bridle for her son from the five nails used for the crucifixion.  The mouth of the horse wearing the bridle had a great flame coming from it.  As a consequence, the people seeing it were terrified and accepted Christianity. The bridle sped the spread of Christianity.

        
      It is clear even from this summary that not all the story as we now have it hang together.  There are inconsistencies both within the story and between the story and the Gospels.It would seem that parts were added or parts lost.  It appears that the story or stories had different probable oral traditions before being written down and the versions were never completely reconciled.

---

[1] Eamonn O Carragain.  Sources or Analogues?  Using Liturgicial Evidence to Date The Dream of the Rood. In Sarah L. Keffer, Karen L. Jolly and Catherine E. Karkov, ed.  Cross and Cruciform in the Anglo Saxon World.  Studies to Honor the Memory of Timothy Reuter. (2010) Morganton, WV. West Virginia University Press, 135-165. Eamonn O Carragain. Ritual and the Rood: Liturgical Images and the Old English Poems of the Dream of the Rood Tradition. (2005) Toronto. University of Toronto Press.

[2] <http://koelner-dom.de/index.php?id=16852&L=1>

[3] Charles, R. H. ed. Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphia of the Old Testament in English.  Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1913. <http://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/adamnev.htm >  See also: Murdoch, Brian.  The Apocryphal Adam and Eve in Medieval Europe : Vernacular Translations and Adaptations of the Vita Adae Et Evae. (2009) Oxford, Oxford University Press. 27 ff. 74-77.

[4]< http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/anderson/vita/english/vita.lat.html>   <http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/apo/adamnev.htm > <http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/Latin%20Life%20of%20Adam%20and%20Eve.pdf>

Anderson, Gary & Michael E. Stone. “Introduction and problems of the text, in Part One of An Electronic Edition of the “Life of Adam and Eve” 1995. <http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/anderson/iath.report.html#Introductionv>

[5] <http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/Latin%20Life%20of%20Adam%20and%20Eve.pdf> 36.1 and 36.2.

[6] This interpolation is to be found in London, British Library, MS Arundel 326, said by Mozley to have derived from a manuscript of the thirteenth century, and its close copy, London, British Library, MS Sloane 289, dated to the fifteenth century. See J. H. Mozley,  Documents: The Vita Adae, Journal of Theological Studies. (1929) XXX-os,

[7] Napier, Arthur S. ed.  History of the Holy Rood-Tree : A Twelfth-century Version of the Cross-legend with Notes, EETS, OS 103 (1894) London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner.  2-32. <https://archive.org/details/historyholyrood01librgoog> <https://ia600400.us.archive.org/9/items/historyholyrood00librgoog/historyholyrood00librgoog.pdf>

[8] See Matthew 27.38, Mark 15.27, Luke 23.39.41, John 19.18.

Jesse Tree Wood: Trunk, Vine, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit-Part 4

 ;
[Apology to the reader:  I wrote these last four parts in MSWord so I could include footnotes and other formatting that I have not figured out how to do just using the blog mode.  If I do not keep each segment relatively short, I find the text starts to move around and do odd things that I had not told it to do. The text and the accompanying pictures seemed unstable.  So I had to break up what was intended as two longish blogs into four parts and there is still more to come. Of course, if anyone wishes to tell me what to do, I will gladly listen.  Thank you. ]

Crucifixion of Jesus of left topologically linked to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar about the great tree and was to be cut down.  This woodcut from a Biblia Pauperum was a reflection of the understanding that the felling of the great tree was prefiguring the redemptive death of Jesus.

<http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/data/13030/w6/ft7v19p1w6/figures/ft7v19p1w6_00159.gif

Continued from previous blog:

      It is in this time period that one finds the first representation of the Crucifixion of Jesus.  Three images are presented below.  The earliest two depictions of the crucifixion were for private use.  The crucifixion scene on the door of Santa Sabrina in Rome is dated to the 6th century but not with as much certainty as the church itself.[17]

Carnelian engraved intaglio. 3-4th century, recovered in Constanta, Romania.  Inscription damaged, probably, ΙΧΘΥΣ or ICHTHYS.  The 12 figures probably represent the  apostles.  British Museum 1895,1113.1

http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00186/AN00186312_001_l.jpg?width=304

Panel from an ivory casket: the Crucifixion of Christ

Ivory panel made in Rome about 420-430 CE now in the British Museum. 1856,0623.5  It is one of four panels that covered the sides of a small box. (Maskell ivories) On the left Judas is hanging from a tree with the spilled bag of coins.  To his right are St. Mary and St. John.  On a tree branch bending toward the crucified but not suffering Jesus in a bird feeding his chicks, a symbol for Jesus as the Church feeding forgiveness to his followers.  On the far right is a figure traditionally identified as Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus.

<http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps297856_l.jpg>

Panel from wooden door of Santa Sabrina all'Aventino.  It represents Jesus crucified in the center and the two thieves on each side. The church was built about 425 CE in Rome during the pontificate of Pope Celestine I (422–433 CE.) and finished under the pontificate of Sixtus III (432–440 CE.) when the church was formally consecrated. 

<http://rometour.org/data/interior_on_the_wall_of_santa_sabina_allaventino-_image_2.jpg>

            According to all the ecclesiastical histories, it was Constantine and his mother Empress Helena who ordered and funded the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  The present Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the result of many reconstructions as the result of deliberate destruction, fire, earthquake, civil unrest, and neglect.  The current church bears little resemblance to the structure built by Constantine in the 4th century.  A plan of that church is useful in identifying the places in the church mentioned below, since the church covered the sites of the Crucifixion, removal of Jesus’ body from the cross, preparation for burial, burial site in the rock tomb, and the site of the Resurrection.  The church also covered the sites where the crosses were supposedly buried, subsequent destruction of the site with erection of pagan Roman temple under Emperor Hadrian, and the site where Empress Helena supposedly found three first century crosses.

1. Patriarchate

2. Rotunda-site of tomb and place of Resurrection

3. Edicule or room with the tomb

4. Garden courtyard

5. Calvary or Golgotha

6. Basilica or Martyrium

7. Atrium

<https://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/433/flashcards/1126433/jpg/reproduction_plans_of_church_of_holy_sepulchre_and_basilica_of_golgotha__jerusalem-144697C1A462A102A71.jpg>

            Depictions of the cross became more common as fragments of the cross became were dispersed around the known world.  Cyril of Jerusalem was the Bishop of Jerusalem from 350-386 with the exception of three periods of exile.  Cyril gave 23 lectures to those being prepared for baptism or shortly after baptism.  These were given in Jerusalem in the Martyrion, another early name for a place within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The lectures as written give us a number of references to the cross.  In Lecture IV, On the ten points of doctrine, Sec. 10, Cyril mentioned that the catechumens were assembled at Golgotha as he spoke.  (See the plan for the Church above.)  He mentioned the Cross and then commented, “the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood of the Cross.”[18]  In Lecture X On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ…, Sec 19. Cyril writes about testimonies bearing witness to Jesus Christ.  “The holy wood of the Cross bears witness, seen among us to this day, and from this place now almost filling the whole world, by means of those who in faith take portions from it.”[19]  Again in Lecture XIII, On the words Crucified and Buried, Sec. 4, Cyril wrote, "For though I should now deny it, here is Golgotha to confute me, near which we are now assembled; the wood of the Cross confutes me, which was afterwards distributed piecemeal from hence to all the world.  I confess the Cross, because I know of the Resurrection; for if, after being crucified, He had remained as He was, I had not perchance confessed it, for I might have concealed both it and my Master; but now that the Resurrection has followed the Cross, I am not ashamed to declare it.”[20]

            There is another 4th century reference to a presence of a wooden cross venerated by Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem.  It comes from the travelogue of a women, seemingly a well off and physically fit widow (though some have thought her a nun), who had the leisure and means to spend three years in the Holy Land.  Her name is not known but she is usually referred to as Egeria and her work as Peregrinatio Aetheriae or Itinerarium Egeriae.  She is thought to have come from southern France or Spain (Galacia). The date of the work is not certain but the early years of 380s are usually suggested.  Unfortunately her writings did not come to the present complete but missing beginning and ending.  Egeria describes in detail the services of the church in Jerusalem  In her description of the Veneration of the Cross during the Good Friday service, she wrote,

     Then a chair is placed for the bishop in Golgotha behind the Cross, which
     is now standing; the bishop duly takes his seat in the chair, and a table
    covered with a linen cloth is placed before him; the deacons stand round
    the table, and a silver-gilt casket is brought in which is the holy wood
    of the Cross. The casket is opened and (the wood) is taken out, and both
    the wood of the Cross and the title are placed upon the table. Now, when
    it has been put upon the table, the bishop, as he sits, holds the extremities
    of the sacred wood firmly in his hands, while the deacons who stand around
    guard it. It is guarded thus because the custom is that the people, both
    faithful and catechumens, come one by one and, bowing down at the table,
    kiss the sacred wood and pass through. And because, I know not when,
    someone is said to have bitten off and stolen a portion of the sacred wood,
    it is thus guarded by the deacons who stand around, lest anyone approaching
    should venture to do so again. And as all the people pass by one by one,
    all bowing themselves, they touch the Cross and the title, first with their
    foreheads and then with their eyes; then they kiss the Cross and pass
    through, but none lays his hand upon it to touch it.[21]

It is interesting to compare the itinerary of the nameless Bordeaux pilgrim who traveled to Jerusalem 50 years earlier in 333 CE.  This itinerary makes no mention of any cross, though the pilgrim notes that a church of "wondrous beauty" has been built, though other information about the consecration of the church would suggest that it was still being built at the time the Bordeaux pilgrim saw the church.  The pilgrim comments on the large cisterns, from which water is raised, presumably for baptism, outside the church as well as "bath" for baptizing infants.(<http://orion.it.luc.edu/~avande1/jerusalem/sources/bordeauxJerus.htm>)

            Sometime between 451 and 458, the date of his death, while Juvenal was Bishop of Jerusalem, Pope Leo I the Great wrote to him.  In letter CXXXIX, the pope wrote to the bishop about using associations with the places where he lived to strengthen his faith and the faith of his flock.  Pope Leo urged Patriarch Juvenal to make use of the sites at hand as aids for teaching the faith to new converts before Baptism.  Leo speaks of the true cross as calling out to Juvenal the truth of the Incarnation.[22]
         
        The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis) tells about another fragment of the true cross recovered by Pope Sergius (reigned 687-701).  Sergius was from a Syrian family that had settled in Sicily.  He may have gone to Rome in response to Arab raids on Sicily though the island was not conquered by Muslims until about 900.  In a tarnished silver casket, Sergius found a gold and jeweled cross that contained a piece of wood.  In honor of this relic, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross was and is celebrated on September 14th.[23]  That is also one of two dates for the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335 CE.  So, the story about finding a fragment of the True Cross may in fact reflect the fact that Sergius brought the eastern church celebration of the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to Rome.  The spread of the celebration of Holy Cross Day in the western Catholic Church dates to the 7th century.

Helen finding the True Cross. British Library Egerton MS 1070. f.91v.

From the Book of Hours of René of Anjou, Paris use, 15th century France.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Kslides/mid/K021/K021698.jpg>

            The fate of Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was stormy.  The Byzantine Empire was not able to keep control of Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and any wood identified as the “True Cross.”  In the 614 war between the Byzantines and Persians, the victorious Persian general Shahrbaraz looted the city and killed thousands of the Christian inhabitants.  He took the relic as a war souvenir to Ctesiphon, now a part of Bagdad.  The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (d. 641) fought back and defeated the Persians in the Battle of Nineveh in 627.  He recovered the relic of the True Cross and returned it to Jerusalem in 630.  He carried the fragment of the "True Cross" dressed in humble clothes and walking in bare feet into Jerusalem.

Heraclius returned cross to Jerusalem in 630.  From Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, in French, with continuation to 1231 by William of Tyre.   Manuscript is in British Library Royal 15 E I f.16. Made in souther Netherlands, Bruge about 1479-80.  Text in French. <http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Ekta/mid/E115/E115495a.jpg>

       Sixteen or seventeen years later, Jerusalem was under siege by the army of Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah and the city led by Patriarch Sophronius capitulated in April 637 or 638.  Jerusalem remained under Muslin control until conquered by the Crusaders in 1099, during the First Crusade.  Less than 100 years later the Crusaders lost control after the disastrous Battle of Hattin in July 1187 against Saladin.  Within months of the battle of the horns of Hattin, Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin.  The wood of the True Cross was lost to the forces of Saladin and never recovered.

The loss of the Holy Cross.  British Library Royal 15 E I, f. f.433v.  William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, to 1231.Made in south Netherlands, Bruge, 1479-1480.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Kslides/mid/K041/K041214.jpg>

Footnotes

[1] Nicholas Orme. Medieval Children.(2001) New Haven: Yale University Press.
[2] Dittmann K, Grupe G. (2000) Biochemical and palaeopathological investigations on weaning and infant mortality
in the early Middle Ages. Anthropol Anz.;58(4):345-55. (This article looked at a site in southern Germany dated to 500-700 CE.)
[3] Hühne-Osterloh G. (1989) Causes of pediatric mortality in a medieval skeletal series  Anthropol Anz. Mar;47(1):11-25. A study in Schleswig in northern Germany found another peak in mortality for children aged 8-10 years, most probably because of inadequate nutrition in the face of more work burdens as children passed the age of 7 years and could contribute to the work the family need to sustain itself.
[4] Lewis ME and Gowland R. (2007)Brief and precarious lives: infant mortality in contrasting sites from medieval and post-medieval England (AD 850-1859) Am J Phys Anthropol. 134(1):117-29.  Pearson JA, Hedges REM, Molleson TI, Özbek M (2010) Exploring the relationship between weaning and infant mortality: an isotope case study from AşikliHöyük and Çayönü Tepesi. Am J Phys Anthropol 143: 448–457.
[5] Orme, p. 117.
[6] Orme, p. 117.
[7] Maureen Barry McCann Boulton.  Sacred Fictions of Medieval France.(2015) Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 100.
[8] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.v.ii.xviii.html>
[9] <http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/vita-constantine.asp>
[10] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.iv.xvii.html>
[11] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.iii.vii.i.html>
[12] Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Library MS 187 is an 11th century manuscript of Eusebius' Historia ecclesiastica, transl. by Rufinus.  There is a nearly identical text referred to as MS 184.  Both were from Christ Church Abbey, Canterbury. There is an online digital copy of the manuscript at: <https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/actions/manuscript_description_long_display.do?ms_no=187>.
[13] Gneuss and LaPidge Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (2014) p.544.
[14] For a detailed listed of places and dates see: Desiree Scholten, MA Thesis entitled The History of a Historia
Manuscript transmission of the Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita by Epiphanius-Cassiodorus. University of Utrecht  <http://cmrp.oeaw.ac.at/PDF/thesis_desiree_scholten.pdf>
[15] Desiree Scholten, “Cassidorius’ Historica Tripartita before the earliest extant manuscripts” in Clemens Gantner, Rosamond McKitterick, Sven Meeder, ed. The Resources of the Past in Early Medieval Europe. (2015) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., pp.34-50.
[16] Rosamond McKitterick. History and Memory in the Carolingian World. (2004) Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. p.235-244.
[17] Allyson Everingham Sheckler  and Mary Joan Winn Leith. The Crucifixion Conundrum and the Santa Sabina Doors. (2010)Harvard Theological Review. Vol 103 (1) 67-88.
[18] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.viii.html>
[19] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.xiv.html>
[20] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.xvii.html>
[21] <http://www.ccel.org/m/mcclure/etheria/etheria.htm>
[22]< http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212.ii.iv.cxxxiii.html>
[23] Raymond Davis, ed. The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of the First Ninety Roman Bishops to AD 715. (2000) Liverpool. Liverpool University Press, 87-88.

Still more to come!

Jesse Tree Wood: Trunk, Vine, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit-Part 2

I had hoped to have this prepared by Holy Cross Day, September 14^th, but that was not to be.  In medieval times, there were two celebrations of the Holy Cross in the Roman Catholic Church.  The Inventions of the Holy Cross was celebrated on May 3rd and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th.  

Wood of the True Cross

            It might not be immediately obvious why a discussion of the wood of the instrument of brutal Roman punishment, crucifixion, should or even would be discussed when writing about the Jesse Tree.  The Jesse Tree celebrates the nativity of Jesus and his enthronement in glory where he “sitteth at the right hande of the father.”  The enthronement in glory is theologically tied to the coming again in judgment often called the Second Coming, at least since the Nicene Creed of 325 CE.  “[H]e shall come again with glory, to judge both the quicke and the dead.” (1549 Book of Common Prayer)  Or the Greek, “ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς.” and Latin, “Et íterum venturus est cum gloria, Iudicare vivos et mórtuos…”

            As it says in the 1549 Book or Common Prayer and only minimally modernized (The Burial of the Dead):  “In the myddest of lyfe we be in death, of whom may we seke for succour but of thee, o Lorde, whiche for our synnes justly art moved? yet o Lord God moste holy, o Lord moste mighty, o holy and moste merciful saviour, delyver us not into the bitter paines of eternal death.” (Order for the Burial of the Dead, 1549 Book of Common Prayer).  The words in Latin are: Media vita in morte sumus ; quem quaerimus adjutorem, nisi te Domine, qui pro peccatis nostris juste irasceris? Sancte Deus, sancte fortis, sancte et misericors Salvator, amarae morti ne tradas nos.  The words are an antiphon written perhaps about 750 in France and familiar to many clergy, clerks, monks, nuns and laypeople. 

            At times in human history, it has seemed that the only purpose of life was death.  Until the 20^th century, mortality rates for infants, children, and adults were high, especially for children and women in childbearing years.  Death was an everyday fact of life.  A quarter of all newborns and infants died before their first birthday.[1]  Once children were fully weaned at age three, their diets were inadequate so death from malnutrition and infectious disease increased again at 4 years.[2]  About 36% of all children died before the age of 6 years.[3] Deaths continued in children older than 7 years because of malnutrition, infectious diseases, and increasing work load for children.[4]  Over 40% of children were dead by aged 10 years.[5]  Less than half of the children born reached their 21^st year.[6]  For a women who survived childhood and became pregnant, she could expect up to a 1-2% chance of dying with each pregnancy or about 10% during her lifetime or more during times of food shortages or epidemics..  Even as late as 1900, the average adult life expectancy was only 47 years.

            

       Though most Jesse Trees do not have depictions the Crucifixion, a few do such as the already stained glass windows at Wells Cathedral or the Crucifixion scene in the oculus above the Jesse Tree in Beauvais Cathedral.  And certainly a monk or nun contemplating the wood of the trunk of Jesse would have thought about Jesus and his death upon the Cross.  In the popular French retelling of the Bible called Le Roman de Dieu et de sa Mère, the author recommends that the reader contemplate the meaning of the Crucifixion even when making the sign of the cross.[7]

 Helen finding True Cross. British Library Royal 6 E VI  f. 447v.  "Crux (Cross)" in the encyclopaedia entitled Omne Bonum (Circumcisio-Dona Spiritui Sancti). Made in south-east England, London, during the years 1360-1375. Scribe is identified at James le Palmer.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Ekta/thm/E123/E123997.jpg>

Legends of the True Cross

            The medieval mind was preoccupied with the interplay of words and images.  Examples shown in two biblical texts already discussed include: 1) Isaiah spoke of a stem from the tree stump of Jesse, and 2) Jeremiah prophesied a righteous Branch from David.  There is an additional tree or wood image that might not immediately come to mind.  When looking at sources such as the Bible picture books called Biblia Pauperum, one encounters pictures of the second dream of King Nebuchadnezzar.  In King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, a tree grew from the center of the earth to a great height so it was seen from everywhere.  The leaves were beautiful, and there was abundant fruit.  Animals found shade under its branches and birds built nests in its limbs.  But then a Holy Watcher came and ordered that the tree be cut down except for the stump in the ground bound with iron and brass. (Daniel 4.4-27)  Daniel interprets the dream as a prediction of the life that the King was to lead.  King Nebuchadnezzar was to become very powerful.  Then the king would be driven from society to dwell as a wild animal eating grass and bathing in dew until he learned the sovereignty of the Most High over everything.  Then, just as the stump was left in the ground, so King Nebuchadnezzar would reestablish his kingdom. 

Nebuchadnezzar and his dream of the magnificent and large tree.  British Libaray Royal 6 E VII   f. 489.  From the entry for Nebuchadnezzar in Omne Bonum (Jacob-Zacharias). Made in south-east England, London from about 1360-1375

  <http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Kslides/mid/K042/K042619.jpg>

            To the medieval mind, the tree was hewed down so it could regrow as a Messianic kingdom.  The medieval mind saw these symbols of growth and destruction of trees as the destruction of Israel and subsequent redemption through Jesus Christ.  The reference is not just to the events of the gospels but also the hoped for second coming as expressed in Revelation 5.5:

            et unus de senioribus dicit mihi ne fleveris ecce vicit leo de tribu Iuda radix 
           David aperire librum et septem signacula eius.(Vulgate:Apocalypsis 5:5)

           Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe
           of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and
           its seven seals.” (Revelation 5.5, NRSV)

            To the early church, the crucifixion was still a source of pain and humiliation.  There are few references .to the cross or crucifixion in the writings of the early Christian church writers of antiquity.

Before Constantine

            Ignatius, was early church father who wrote in his “Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians” about the Glory of the Cross as a stumbling block.  He paraphrases Paul in I Corinthians 1.23, saying, “The cross of Christ is indeed a stumbling-block to those that do not believe, but to the believing it is salvation and life eternal.”[8]

            Another early reference to the cross is in the Epistle of Barnabas written at the end of the 1^st century or early 2^nd century by an unknown author, despite the letter’s title.  Written perhaps in Alexandria, the author sees frequent references to the Cross in the Old Testament as an extended foreshadowing of life and salvation given by the death of Jesus.  To the author, Moses is a type of Jesus, especially Moses’ sufferings at the hand of the Hebrews when they complain and rebel.  The author says that because Eve sinned because of the serpent, just as the Hebrews in the wilderness were bitten with venomous snakes and died until Moses raised the bronze serpent on a pole that they might look on it.  The raising of the pole and the cure by looking upon it was an indication of the glory of Jesus. 

     
       The veneration of relics was first mentioned in the Martyrdom of Polycarp written about 150-160 CE.  After his body was burned, his bones was collected and preserved as they “more valuable than precious stones.” (The letter of the Smyrnaeans or the Martyrdom of Polycarp, 18.2. Lightfoot translation. <http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/martyrdompolycarp-lightfoot.html>.)

            In early Christian art, there are no crosses.  In the catacombs of Rome, one finds chi and rho, alpha and omega, fish, anchors, but no crosses per se.  In an early Christian church dating to the 200s found at Megiddo, Israel, the elaborate mosaic floor has two fish and geometric designs.

The Centuries after Constantine

           The crossi is seen  with some regularity  with or soon after the death of the Emperor Constantine.  Eusebius of Caesarea writing after the death of Constantine about 337 CE or so mentions that Constantine had a dream of a new banner to be carried into battle of a cross with a banner and chi-rho for Christ called a labarum.  It appeared on the coins of Constantine and his sons.  An example of a bronze coin referred to as a follis from the end of the reign of Constantine I is shown below.

Constantine I AE follis. 335-337 AD bronze coin minted at Arles with Chi-Rho on banner or labarum.  RIC VII 394

<http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/constantine/_arles_RIC_vII_394.jpg>

            Eusebius continues in the Life of Constantine to write about how the site where Jesus had been buried was venerated among Christians in Jerusalem but it was covered with a mound of dirt and a temple to Venus built on top.[9]  (One assumes that this is a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem under Emperor Hadrian and his rebuilding of the city as Aelia Capitolina.)  Constantine ordered that the site be cleared of temple and dirt, and on the site the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was to be built.  Constantine gives orders to Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem and the governors about the building of the church.  There is no mention of finding any cross.  The narrative continues with Constantine’s mother, Helena, founding a church at the grotto where Jesus was born, and another on the Mount of Olives the site of the Ascension.

Continued to next part.