How the Legend of the True Cross Travelled West, Part 2

As I have previously written, within a generation of the finding of the True Cross, or at least old olive wood, in Jerusalem, fragments of the wood were distributed widely as noted by Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Lecture X Sec. 19 (written c.348).[i]

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.

Socrates Scholasticus (Ecclesiastical History, Bk. I, Ch. XVII) wrote that pieces of the Cross were sent to Jerusalem and Constantinople. Presumably a piece taken back to the palace of Helen Augusta in Rome along with other passion artifacts from her trip to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. In any case, a record in the Liber Pontificalis (Book of the Popes) perhaps begun in the 5th or 6th century, reports that Pope Sylvester I (Pope from 324-335) built a basilica (an oblong church with a semicircular apse) in the Sessorian palace, the residence of Helena Augusta at the time of her death in about 330.  In this church, the pope placed some “wood of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” encased in gold and decorated with jewels.[ii]  This church is now the Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome.  

As written earlier in this blog, it is thought that the sermon of Ambrose of Milan for the funeral of Theodosius in 395 is the first account of the finding of the True Cross by Helena Augusta, the mother of Emperor Constantine.  Apparently a slightly earlier version was written by Gelasius, bishop of Caesarea, about 390 as part of a continuation of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, but this is lost.

The mass migrations or invasions of numerous non-Christian populations into western Europe during the 400s blocked the spread of the True Cross legends.  It appears that coming of orthodox Roman Catholic Christianity and the cult of relics to non-Christians in the 5th and 6th centuries carried the legends of the True Cross with the missionaries from the lands around the Mediterranean Sea.

It is not my intent to go into the long discussion about the distribution of the fragments of the True Cross from Jerusalem and Constantinople. I will tell two stories. 

One story with a cast of interesting men and a woman, illustrates the wanderings of at least one fragment of the True Cross that is told by Paulinus of Nola (c. 354-432) in his letter 31.[iii] Paulinus of Nola was born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, south-west France, into a family of wealth and privilege.  He was ordained as a priest while married, and he and Theresia, his wife, moved to Nola, now a suburb of Naples, Campania, Italy. He and his wife sold or donated their properties and possessions and gave to the poor and funded the building of a church, hospice for the poor, and an aqueduct.

About 395, Paulinus wanted to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem and wrote to Jerome living in Bethlehem. Jerome wrote back to Paulinus discouraging him. Jerome reminded Paulinus that the “access to the courts of heaven is as easy from Britain as it is from Jerusalem; for ‘the kingdom of God is within you.’”[iv]  Jerome went on to complain that Jerusalem, and even bucolic Bethlehem, was too full of men and women tourists coming from everywhere. In addition, Jerusalem was a city filled with soldiers, court officers, criminals, actors, civil and church officials, and having the vices of a city such as prostitutes, plays, social parties and the overindulgence at large social gatherings. Paulinus and Theresia, his wife, stayed home.

Next, two characters are added to the story.  The first is Melania the Elder (c. 341-410), a very wealthy Roman widow, friend and perhaps kinswoman of Paulinus, and friend and patroness of Rufinus of Aquileia, the previously mentioned writer of an Ecclesiastical History. The second person is the controversial Bishop John II of Jerusalem (ruled from 387-417, after the death of Bishop Cyril mentioned above). Bishop John was a friend to Melania the Elder and her friend and protégée Rufinus.  Apparently, Bishop John was also friends with Jerome until sometime around 395 or so when a schism developed.  Sometime about 398, Jerome wrote an acerbic letter/treatise called, “To Pammachius Against John of Jerusalem” accusing him or heresy (Origenism) and an inability to maintain discipline in Jerusalem and vicinity.[v]

As Bishop of Jerusalem, John II would have had access to the wood of the True Cross maintained as a sacred relic in Jerusalem. It is he that gave fragment of wood from the True Cross to Melania the Elder.[vi]  Melania the Elder gave a piece of the True Cross to Paulinus of Nola who in turn sent a sliver of the True Cross to his friend and fellow countryman, Sulpicius Severus (c.363-425).[vii]

Stained glass window of Sulpice Sévère (Sulpicus Severus) in Cathedral of St. Stephen in Bourges, France. Window located in choir triforium; north side window 103. Dated to 1230. http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Bourges/images/w103l-80474.JPG

What became of the relics worn by Paulinus and Severus is not known. 

Severus was presbyter in the Church as well as a writer and poet known for his classical style of writing in Latin.  He wrote among other works Sacred History and On the Life of St. Martin. Severus mentions the finding of the True Cross by Helena in Jerusalem in his Sacred History, but he says nothing about the fragmentation of the True Cross or its disbursal. Severus was a disciple of St. Martin of Tours, and lived at or near Toulouse.[Aside-Though the Emperor Honorius gave Toulouse and Aquitania to the Visigoths in 418, the Visigoths were Christians, just Arian Christians, a heretical sect to Trinitarian Roman Catholic Christianity.]

 Top panel: Anderedus's child is healed by lying on St. Radegonde's hair shirt. Bottom panel. St. Radegonde revived a sick child. St. Radegonde’s Church, Poitiers, France. North window no. 109. Original 13^th century glass fragments from a life of St. Radegund in a window made about 1900. http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Poitiers-StRadegonde/images/n1r-1-2-IMG_4296.JPG

Detail of north window 113.  St. Radegonde in center with two companions, Abbess Agnes and Abbess Disciola.  Stained glass made about 1275.  Reset in present window in 18^th and 20^th centuries.  St. Radegonde’s Church, Poitiers, France. http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Poitiers-StRadegonde/images/n3-L-rosette-IMG_4325.JPG

The second story is that of Radegund, the founder of the Abbey Our Lady or St. Mary, later the Abbey of the Holy Cross, Poitiers.  Radegund’s name has many spellings including Radegonde, Redegonda, Radegonda, Radegundis, among others. There are two sources for the life of this Thuringian princess, Vita Sanctae Radegundis by her friend, Venantius Fortunatus, and Vita Radegundis written by Baudovina, a nun at the Abbey of the Holy Cross, about twenty years later.  These Lives are supplemented with Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, translated as History of the Franks, and a few surviving letters.[viii]  

Radegund was born about 520 to Bertachar, King of Thuringia, an area that is now in central Germany. Her father was defeated in battle and killed by his brother, Hermanfrid. The child Radegund was presumably sent to live with her uncle Hermanfrid. 

Hermanfrid made a pact with Theuderic I, the Merovingian king of Metz or Austrasia (now northern France, much of Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and part of Germany) to attack Hermanfrid’s remaining brother, Baderic.  Once Hermanfrid and Theuderic defeated Baderic in 529, Hermanfrid reneged on his promise to give Theuderic half his kingdom.  Then the Frankish king Theuderic with his brother Clotaire or Clothar or Chlothar, also called Lothar, attacked Thuringia, and eventually defeated them in 531 with the resultant death of Radegund’s remaining family except for her brother.

An argument ensued among the Frankish leaders for the spoils of war but ended with casting lots.   Chlothar won, and he took the 10-year-old or so child Radegund back to his villa of Athies in Picardy to be raised as his wife. She was taught to read and write.  

Chlothar had at least seven wives and consorts including Guntheuc, his brother’s widow; Theodosia of Burgundy; Ingund, and her sister, Aregund; Chunsina; Radegund; and Wuldetrada. 

About 540, Chlothar, forty-something, married Radegund, probably about 19 or so.  There were no children. Fortunatus describes her distaste for married life by describing how she would leave the marriage bed at night to relieve herself and then prostrate herself on the cold ground under a hair shirt to pray.

About the time that Chlothar murdered Radegund’s brother, she left her husband. Radegund was probably in the late 20s and her husband in his 50s. According to Baudovinia, Radegund retired to a villa at Saix where she came to an arrangement with her husband to endow a convent. When her husband changed his mind, and decided to retrieve Radegund from her abbey at Poitiers, she turned to Bishop Germanus of Paris.   At the shrine of  St. Martin of Tours, she lay in tears on the ground before King Chlothar accompanied by the Bishop.  The Bishop interceded to change Chlothar’s mind. He asked Queen Radegund for forgiveness and provided an endowment for the Abbey. 

Venantius Fortunatus recounts a different story.  When Radegund fled from her husband Chlothar, she went to Menardus, Bishop of Noyon.  When he was reluctant to allow her to become a monarcha or nun, she put on the monastic garb herself.  She shamed Menardus by saying, “If you shrink from consecrating me, and fear man more than God, Pastor, He will require His sheep’s soul from your hand.” Bishop Menardus consecrated Radegund a deaconess. Only after this, did she retire to Saix.  After distributing her personal wealth, one of her first acts as a deaconess was to grind flour by hand for religious communities. She seems to have developed a community of women even before establishing the Abbey.

Fortunatus described the extreme ascetic practices and mortification of the flesh practiced by Radegund during her marriage and after her withdrawal to the convent. She not only fasted to the extreme, when she did eat, she ate no animal products. But even her diet of grains and vegetables was inadequate. She frequently denied herself water and other liquids to drink. The burning and other harm she did to her physical body would be considered self-injury today and would be traced to all the traumatic events of her early life.  In her time, her activities were thought to bring her closer to the “sweetness of Christ.”[ix]

We know little about the founding of the Abby of Our Lady or St. Mary itself, though in a letter to the Bishops, Radegund wrote,

I established a monastery of girls in the city of Poitiers and endowed the institution with a donation as far as royal munificence granted me. Moreover, for the congregation collected through me for Christ, I received the rule under which holy Caesaria lived, which the solicitude of blessed Caesarius, bishop of Arles brought together fittingly from the institution of the holy Fathers.[x]

The founding of the Abbey is traditionally dated to about 552 with Agnes, the foster daughter of Radegund, as the first Abbess. Radegund and the community of nuns established a hospice for feeding paupers twice a week and caring for the sick, especially women with skin diseases.

According to Baudovinia, Radegund sought relics for the convent and the mortuary chapel St. Mary-outside-the-wall, later called St. Radegund’s Church, being built at Poitiers. First, Radegund sent a priest named Reoval to the Patriarch of Jerusalem to request some relics of a martyr named Mammas entombed in Jerusalem. Radegund received a finger sent to Poitiers from Jerusalem.[xi]

Baudovinia compared Radegund to Helena, the mother of Constantine, in her desire for the True Cross. She wrote to King Sigebert I, the king who had control over Poitiers, asking his permission to contact the Emperor Justin II and his wife Sophia in Constantinople. Radegund petitioned the Emperor for piece of the True Cross.  The Emperor sent back not only the wood but also legates with gospels ornamented with gold and gems.[xii] These events probably took place in 568-9.

The bishop of Poitiers, Maroveus, refused to accept the wood of the True Cross into Poitiers. Then Radegund, “her spirit blazing in a fighting mood” wrote to King Sigebert again while the relics were kept at a monastery founded by the king at Tours.[xiii]  Sigebert sent word to Bishop Eufronius of Tours.  It was he who welcomed the relics, led the procession, and had them installed at the Abbey, whose name changed to the Abbey of the Holy Cross.

On the occasion of the procession of the relic of the True Cross from the outskirts of Poitiers to the Abbey, Venantius Fortunatus composed two hymns.  The first was Vexilla Regis prodeunt. For a discussion of this hymn in English, see: A Clerk of Oxford: Vexilla Regis Prodeunt: Þe kynges baneres beth forth ylad. (http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2012/04/vexilla-regis-prodeunt-e-kynges-baneres.html.) The other hymn was Pange lingua, gloriosi proelium certaminis.[xiv] These hymns are still in use, usually in translation, more than 1400 years after they were written.

The Abbey of the Holy Cross was severely damaged during the French Wars of Religion in the 16^th century but then rebuilt. The Abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution.

The presence of a fragment of the True Cross at Poitiers made it a pilgrimage site, helping to spread the legends of the True Cross.

I try to imagine what the casket looked like that brought the True Cross from Constantinople. All I can imagine are the Fieschi Morgan staurothekehe, or the beautiful bursa caskets such as the one at The Cloisters at Washington Heights on Manhattan Island, or the spectacular champlevé reliquaries from 600 years after the founding of the Abbey of the Holy Cross.

The Fieschi Morgan Staurotheke made in Constantinople in the early 9th century apparently to hold relics including a cross. Silver gilt, gold, enamel and niello. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 17.190.715a, b. 

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_17.190.715ab.jpg

10th century bursa reliquary made in northern Italy of wood, bone, and copper gilt.

The Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 53.19.2

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_53.19.2.jpg

Chasse of Champagnat made in Limoges, France about 1150 of copper, gilt, and champlevé enamels. Metropolitan Museum of Art.17.190.685–87, .695, .710–.711 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_17.190.685.jpg

Back of Reliquary Cross showing scenes of Helen finding the True Cross. Made in Belgium (Mosan) about 1165. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Made of copper alloy gilt with enamel and semi-precious stones. http://www.learn.columbia.edu/treasuresofheaven/relics/jpegs/298.87-300float.jpg.

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[i] Wilhelm Ziehr in his book Das Kreuz. Symbol · Gestalt · Bedeutung (Stuttgart / Darmstadt: Belser / Wiss. Buchges. 1997) reported microscopically examining 4 particles from the True Cross relics found at Santa Croce (Rome), Notre Dame (Paris), Cattedrale di Pisa, and Duomo di Firenze. He found that all four were made of olive wood. Olive wood is rot resistant, hard (not great for hammering in iron spikes but great for durability and re-use) and it does not bend under stress. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture X. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310110.htm.  In contrast stories about the Cross being found in Jerusalem, the Pilgrim from Bordeaux who visited Jerusalem in AD 333, reported the building of Constantine’s basilica, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but made no mention of a cross. http://www.centuryone.com/bordeaux.html.

[ii] Loomis, Louise R. The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) I. New York: Columbia University Press, Ch. XXXIV, p. 59.  Newer translation: Davis, Raymond, The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of the First Ninety Roman Bishops to Ad 715. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1989.

[iii]“Letter 31 to Severus” in Paulinus, Pontius M, and Patrick G. Walsh (eds.). Letters of St. Paulinus of Nola: Vol. 2. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1967, pp. 125-133.

[iv] “Letter LVIII to Paulinus” in W. H. Fremantle. The Principal Works of St. Jerome. Select library of Nicene and post-Nicene fathers of the Christian Church., Second series 6; Oxford: James Parker and Co, 1893. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.LVIII.html.

[v] NPNF2-06. Jerome: The Principal Works of St. Jerome. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.vi.viii.html. For a detailed examination of the reasons for the sharp criticism of Bishop John by Jerome, see the introduction to this letter. The controversy arose because Jerome thought that John II believed in Origenism.  The four main points of Origenism are (i) the allegorical interpretation of Scripture, (2) that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were no co-equal and (3) a confusing set of beliefs about the eternity of creation.  All created rational souls are equal. Though the material world was created at the same time as the spiritual one, the spiritual world came prior. Only imperfect spirits have bodies.  (4) Redemption is available to all rational beings.  Of particular concern was the concept of the Trinity.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each had a different sphere of influence of unequal power and dignity, e.g. the Father is creator, the Son is redeemer, the Spirit is sanctifier.  In liturgical practice this meant praying to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This was interpreted to mean that God was the pre-eminent whole divinity and that the Son and Holy Spirit are subordinate persons, not the now usual Athanasian interpretation familiar to most orthodox Christians that the Father is not the Son is not the Holy Spirit but all members of the Trinity are co-equal. Athanasius (c. 297-373) was Bishop of Alexandria (I am dependent on The Catholic Encyclopedia, here, and I hope “I got it right.”)  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11306b.htm.

[vi] For information about Melania the Elder and her equally famous grand-daughter, Melania the Younger, see: Chin, Catherine M. (ed.), and Caroline T. Schroeder (ed.). Melania: Early Christianity Through the Life of One Family, Oakland, University of California Press. 2016. Melania the Elder died in Sicily in 410 having left Rome just as Alaric, the Visigoth, sacked Rome. Her grand-daughter and family settled in Thagaste, north Africa, now Algeria, before departing for Jerusalem. Thagaste or Tagaste was the birthplace of Augustine of Hippo. For an interesting look at itinerant religious travelers, see: Dietz, Maribel. Wandering Monks, Virgins, and Pilgrims: Ascetic Travel in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 300-800. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005.  The Benedictine vow on stability did not begin until sometime in the 6^th century, about two hundred years after the events related above.

[vii] “Letter 31 to Severus” in Pontius M, and Patrick G. Walsh (eds.). Letters of St. Paulinus of Nola: Vol. 2. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1967, pp. 125-133.  Some writings of Sulpicius Severus have survived including his life of St. Martin of Tours and his Sacred History. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf211.ii.html.

[viii] Carlin, Martha (trans.) Venantius Fortunatus: Life of St. Radegund. http://people.uwm.edu/carlin/venantius-fortunatus-life-of-st-radegund/. “Radegund, Queen of the Franks and Abbess of Poitiers (ca. 525–587)” in Jo Ann McNamara, JoAnn, E. Gordon Whatley, John E. Halborg. Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Durham. Duke University Press. (1992) pp.60-105. Gregory, of T, and Lewis Thorpe. The History of the Franks. Harmondsworth (England: Penguin Books, 1986.) Epistolae: Radegund of Thuringia. https://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/woman/89.htm Patricia Cox Miller, “Visceral Seeing: The Holy Body in Late Ancient Christianity,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 12.4 (Winter 2004): 391-411. Glenn, Jason. “Two Lives of St. Radegund,” in Glenn, Jason. The Middle Ages in Texts and Texture: Reflections on Medieval Sources. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011, pp.57-70.

[ix] Fortunatus, Venantius. Life of Holy Radegund.Ch 26. http://people.uwm.edu/carlin/venantius-fortunatus-life-of-st-radegund/. Or “Radegund, Queen of the Franks and Abbess of Poitiers (ca. 525–587)” in Jo Ann McNamara, JoAnn, E. Gordon Whatley, John E. Halborg. Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Durham. Duke University Press. (1992) pp.60-105 at p. 81.

[x] A letter from Radegund of Thuringia (561-67?) to the Bishops. https://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/914.html. Included in Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum.

[xi] Radegund, Queen of the Franks and Abbess of Poitiers (ca. 525–587)” in Jo Ann McNamara, JoAnn, E. Gordon Whatley, John E. Halborg. Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Durham. Duke University Press. (1992) pp.60-105 at

pp. 95-6.

[xii] Ibid., p.97.

[xiii]Ibid., p.98.

[xiv] http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/Vexilla.html. http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/PangeF.html.  

The Wood of the Cross - Good Friday, April 14, 2017

As I write about the lopped or rough-hewn cross, I will try to not repeat what has been said already in the Tree of Jesse blogs, especially those from August 2015, but some repetition is probably inevitable.  So, the writer asks for the readers’ indulgence.

The medieval mind was preoccupied with the interplay of words and images (typological thinking) Examples shown in three biblical texts are: 1) Isaiah speaks of a stem from the tree stump of Jesse, 2) Jeremiah prophecies a righteous Branch from David, 3) Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a tree that grew from the center of the earth to a great height, but was then cut down as predicting the life that the King was to lead.  The tree was hewed down so it can 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)

            And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe
            of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose
            the seven seals thereof. (Revelation 5.5 KJV)

Multiple layers of means were sought and found.  Pictorial representations showing topological reasoning reinforced the need to hear or read the words and consider the many possible layers of meaning.

Typological window of the Redemption from Cathedral of St. Stephen, Chalons-en-Champagne, France. Glass dates 1138-1147. Center-the body of Christ is on a green cross, flanked by St. Mary and St. John. The round figures on the left and right above the cross are the sun and the moon. The half-round windows clockwise from the top are: Church Triumphant, Moses raising the brazen serpent, Synagogue, and the sacrifice of Isaac. http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Chalons-cath/images/ws-C12-IMG_0289a.jpg The Crucifixion of Jesus was often linked with the near sacrifice of Isaac and the substitution of a ram for Isaac, the sacrifice of Jesus by his death, and the lifting up of the bronze snake of Moses to save the Israelites were all closely linked in medieval thinking.  The Church (Ecclesia) triumphing over Synagogue appeared from about 850-early 1300s when the images almost disappear.

The link between the stump of Jesse, the rod of Moses, the wood of the (true) Cross, and the Tree of Life was made well before the 11th or 12th century.  For example, Bishop Quodvultdeus of Carthage (active c. 437-c.453), a younger contemporary of and correspondent with Augustine of Hippo, wrote a sermon that identified the wood of the cross with the shoot from the stock of Jesse, and the rod of Moses.[i]

 O agne occise, o Christe sancte pro nobis crucifixe, qui ut lapsa reparares in cruce pependisti: ipsa est illa virga regni tui, crux ipsa, in quam, qua virtus in infirmitate perficitur; ipsa illa virga crux, ipsa illa virga quae floruit ex radice Jesse; ipsa illa virga quam portabat Moyses, quae conversa in serpentem glutiit magorum serpentes: doctrina Christi diffusa per omnes gentes, haereticos superans dementes.[ii]

Oh lamb had been slain, who was crucified for us, O holy Christ, who hung upon the cross that [our] Fall may be repaired: scepter of thy kingdom is that the very cross, into which…any virtue is made perfect in weakness: none other than that the rod of the cross, this very same rod which flowered from the root Jesse, that she was carrying a rod as Moses, which was turned into a snake swallow[ing] magicians’ snakes: the doctrine of Christ spread throughout the nation, surpassing the demented heretics.

Quodvultdeus’ sermon was attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo.  And under that name the sermon was known in England by the early 12th century.  Quite a number, perhaps nine, of his sermons were known in England.  Two manuscript copies of the sermons are preserved in cathedral libraries.  One early 12th century manuscript is in the Salisbury Cathedral library.[iii]  The second 12th century copy is among a collection of sermons in a manuscript at Worcester Cathedral library.[iv]

References to the wood of the Cross in the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend), Vita Adae et Evae (Life of Adam and Eve), the Holy Rood legend, and the Pantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo have been mentioned in previous blogs.

Looking over my notes, I may have left out one more version of the wood of the Cross.  The Gospel of Nicodemus or The Acts of Pilate was written perhaps as early as the 4th century.[v]   An apparently later addition to the text was a description of Jesus’ descent into and Harrowing of Hell.  There is scholarly debate as to the original language of composition and the date of the Descensus part of the tale.  It was probably not added until after the 6th century since Gregory of Tours (540-594) references the Gospel of Nicodemus without mentioning the Descent in Hell part of the story.[vi]   In any case, Anglo-Saxon England knew the Latin story.  The text includes another version of Adam’s son, Seth, begging before the gates of Paradise for the oil of mercy for his father Adam.  Seth recalled that as he begged for the oil of mercy, the angel Michael came to him and said that he could not have the oil of mercy but that a Savior, the Son of God, would come in 5,500 years and raise up the body of Adam and the bodies of the dead.  Jesus will “lead our father Adam into paradise to the tree of mercy.”  In the second Latin version of the text, the writer has the prophet Jeremias(h) say, “When I was upon earth, I prophesied of the Son of God, that He was seen upon earth, and dwelt with men.”[vii]

The legends of the finding of the True Cross were written down first and Greek.  Depictions of the Crucifixion in late Latin art appear just before or about the same time as the Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia.  Rufinus wrote his books in Italy around 400. They were copied frequently given the number of extant versions.  Rufinus wrote a Latin transliteration of earlier Greek Church Histories to which he added his version of the finding of the True Cross. 

A couple of the earlier crucifixion scenes are found in the British Museum.

4^th century Late Roman carnelian intaglio Crucifixion.  British Museum 1895,1113.1 http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00186/AN00186312_001_l.jpg?width=304

One of four Maskell ivories that formed the sides of a casket. British Museum 1856,0623.5 c.420-430 Made in Rome. http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN01249/AN01249815_001_l.jpg?width=304

Parenthetically, it is Rufinus’ version of Church History that reached Anglo-Saxon England.  For details, see Gneuss and Lapidge. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100.  Manuscripts are located at Wormsley Library (7th cen. Northumbria or Ireland, then England), Pembroke College Cambridge from Bury St. Edmunds from mid-9th century, Worchester Cathedral MS Q 28 (10th cen.) and Corpus Christi College Cambridge dated to mid-10th and 11th centuries.

Though there are lots of legends as to the wood of the cross, whether the cross was made of one species of wood or three (cedar, pine, cypress), there is no mention of the color of the cross except for the color that one would associate with one species or another. The legends of the finding of the True Cross by Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, record what she did with the cross.  The wood was divided between Jerusalem and Constantinople.

Helena supposedly encased the fragments of the True Cross in a silver reliquary that was left in the care of Bishop of Jerusalem, presumably for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre finished about AD 335, at least that is the version of Theodoret (d. 457)[viii]

There is even earlier evidence for the display of the Cross in silver gilt case from Egeria, a pilgrim to Jerusalem in the 380s.  She is thought to be a nun or a wealthy widow because her Letter or Itinerary to her circle of female friends that describes in some detail the veneration of the Holy Cross on Good Friday (Chapter 37)

Then a chair is placed for the bishop in Golgotha [part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem] 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…

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...[ix]

Another version of the finding of the Cross by Helen with its accompanying nails was recounted by Bishop Ambrose of Milan in his funeral orations for Emperor Theodosius in February 395.[x]  Again there is no special mention of the wood.  Ambrose seemed especially concerned about the use of the nails in a crown made by Helena for her son Emperor Constantine.

The fact that pieces of the True Cross taken to Constantinople was being distributed to places outside of Jerusalem and Constantinople is described by the Bishop of Jerusalem, Cyril, in his Catechetical Lecture X, Section 19:

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.[xi]

The encasement of the True Cross and fragments thereof in precious metal adorned with gems is exemplified in the beautiful crux gemmata found in apse mosaics and processional crosses that have survived the centuries. The encasement of sacred fragments in gold adorned with enamels were even made in Anglo-Saxon England.

Anglo-Saxon Reliquary Cross, made perhaps at Winchester, 10^th century. Victoria & Albert Museum, 7943-1862.  The core of this cross is oak. http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2006BC/2006BC6621_jpg_ds.jpg

---

[i] Quodvultdeus, Sermo De cataclysmo ad catechumenos quoted in Nicole Fallon.  The Cross as Tree: The Wood-of-the–Cross Legends in Middle English and Latin Texts in Medieval England.  Ph.D. Thesis. U. of Toronto. <https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/19188/1/Fallon_Nicole_A_200911_PhD_thesis.pdf:> 

See also, Quodvultdeus:  <http://www.bede.net/saslc/samples/q/quodvultdeus.pdf>

[ii] De Cataclysmo: Sermo ad Catechumenos, Caput V-6. Migne, J. P. Patrologia Latina Vol. 40, p.696. Text online at: <http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/0354-0430,_Augustinus,_Sermones_Dubii._De_Cataclysmo_Sermo_Ad_Catechumenos,_MLT.pdf>

[iii] Salisbury Cathedral Library Manuscript No. 35 f.82r-.97v.

[iv] Part of sermons 1-3 appears in Worcester Cathedral Library F. 92 Sermones ab Adventu ad Pascha. f.89v-90v.

[v]Izydorczyk, Zbigniew, ed. The Medieval Gospel of Nicodemus. (1997) Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.  <http://openlibrary.org/books/OL1001489M/The_Medieval_Gospel_of_Nicodemus> See also: <http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/lbob10.htm> <http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/lbob10.htm>

[vi] Izydorczyk, Zbigniew, ed. The Medieval Gospel of Nicodemus. (1997) Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.  <http://openlibrary.org/books/OL1001489M/The_Medieval_Gospel_of_Nicodemus> See also: <http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/lbob10.htm> < http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/lbob10.htm>

[vii]   Roberts, Alexander, and James Donaldson. The Gospel of Nicodemus. The Acts of Pilate.  Edinburgh, T. T. Clark, 1867. <http://mb-soft.com/believe/txua/nicodemu.htm> Christ's Descent into Hell. Latin. Second Version. Chapter 6. < http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/lbob10.htm>

[viii] Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, Book I Chapter 17. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/27021.htm>

[ix] Egeria and The Fourth Century Liturgy of Jerusalem, Veneration of the Cross. <http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mikef/durham/egetra.html>

[x] https://archive.org/stream/fathersofthechur012812mbp/fathersofthechur012812mbp_djvu.txt

[xi] http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310110.htm

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.

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[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.