emblematic representations of heat and cold in la ceppede's theoremes

Emblematic Representations of Heat and Cold in La Ceppede's TheoremesAuthor(s): Leonard MarshSource: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 53-62Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540629 .

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The Sixteenth Century Journal Volume XVIII, No. 1, Spring 1987

Emblematic Representations of Heat and Cold in La Ceppede's Theoremes

Leonard Marsh Manhattan College

Like the visual design of an emblem, images of heat and cold in the Theoremes form unusual compositions of objects and/or persons in- terrelated allegorically, situated in "mysterious" abstract space and then accompanied by their interpretation and/or moral application. The central figure of the Theoremes is seen as Jesus as a force exerted by heat. When His physical presence is felt or sought, spiritual strength and fidelity are present as emblems of heat. When His presence is ignored or shunned, carnal weakness, fear, and infidelity are present as the message of emblems of cold.

THE LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY AND EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY was a period of great religious doubt born of the Reformation and secular inter- pretations of the cosmos. With the Council of Trent ended in 1563, it re- mained for religious writers to reaffirm strongly the tenets of their faith and to reconcile man's new scientific knowledge of the cosmos with God's role in it as prime mover. What had become confused due to the Reformation and secularized due to humanistic trends was now to be reorganized into a clearly unified body of religious belief. Emphasis was to be placed both on the New Testament's symbolic and real fulfillment of the Old Testament as well as on the authoritative role played by the Church Fathers in contribut- ing to the inspired tradition of the Church. Furthermore, these reaffirmed doctrines were to be made real and personal to the populace. What had been doctrines formerly couched in academic dispute and directed toward an elite group were now to become meaningful for the common individual Christian. Such was a goal. The means to accomplish this goal was to make the doctrines appeal more extensively to the senses and to offer exterior supports and aids to private devotion. This was the "school of personal sanctity" that Henri Bremond named humanisme devot. 1

One of the least known of the poetes devots was Jean de La Ceppede, a Provencal magistrate believed to be born in Marseille around the year 1550.2

1Henri Bremond, L'Humanisme divot (1580-1660), Vol. 1 of Histoire litteraire du sentiment religieux en France depuis la fin des guerres de religion jusqu'4 nos jours (Paris: Bloud et Gay, 1929), 17.

2Lance K. Donaldson-Evans, "Notice biographique sur Jean de La Ceppede," Biblio- theque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 28 (1966): 124. Donaldson-Evans also notes that La Ceppede was from the family of the Spanish mystic and saint, Teresa of Avila (1515-82), whose family name was Cepeda (127 n. 4).



54 The Sixteenth Century Journal

His Theoremes form a collection of five hundred twenty sonnets which relive the New Testament account spanning from Jesus' last hours to his Ascen- sion and the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost.3 True to the aesthetics and didactic purpose of humanisme divot, the sonnets are replete with pictorial realism, sense imagery, and natural figures to make the gospel account pal- pable to every Christian. In fact, La Ceppede's sensorially oriented verbal representations of Jesus' last hours have in many instances the same structural properties of the emblem, a sign-oriented didactic form contem- poraneous with the The'oremes and whose purpose was to popularize uni- versal morals and truths in picture form. It is the purpose of this study to show how La Ceppede uses heat and cold within the emblematic structure to represent fidelity and the lack thereof in one episode of the New Testa- ment drama. But first let us explore the structural properties of the emblematic sign.

In its simplest sense the emblem may be defined as a stylized sign whose purpose is to instruct allegorically. As seen in emblem books, it uses two media: design and word. The design portrays an object or objects in abstract, almost enigmatic, space. The objects are arranged in a schematic way, much like a lifeless and highly organized diagram, so that the design is "felt as somehow pregnant with meaning, as of high communicational value...."4 Objects in the picture may be combined in an incongruous way, i.e., they are not necessarily found together in nature but neither are they combined arbitrarily.5 Thus the emblem-picture is endowed with a "mysterious" allure, ready to be interpreted. The allegorical meaning of the design and its moral message are made explicit when amplified by the word. An inscription, usually appearing within the emblematic design, can be a motto giving a general rule of conduct or an impersonal statement of truth. A verse epigram finally interprets the design by applying it to some moral truth. In the The'oremes no visual design exists except the frontispiece. Yet visual design finds its metaphor in abundant realistic detail, sense imagery, and the sensorial evocation (visual or otherwise) of objects, figures, and types. These too bear remarkable resemblance to the emblematic design in that they form unusual compositions of objects and/or persons in- terrelated allegorically, situated in "mysterious" abstract space, and then accompanied by their interpretation and/or moral application.

3A distinctive feature of this collection is the author's own exegetical commentary ap- pended to each sonnet. The commentary provides abundant historical and cultural information as well as explanatory notes on a variety of mythological, theological, philosophi- cal, and astrological allusions. A veritable compendium of knowledge, the commentary is an apparatus aimed at supporting the sonnets as proof for Church dogma, hence the title Theoremes.

4Walter J. Ong, "From Allegory to the Diagram in the Renaissance Mind," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 24 (1959):439.

5Peter M. Daly, Literature in Light of the Emblem (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), 71.



Heat & Cold in Theoremes 55

One important instance of such sensorial evocation in the Theboremes is that of heat and cold, the underlying principle of which is the principle of attraction. The central figure is Jesus as a magnetic force, or more properly, a force exerted by heat. When His physical presence is felt or sought, spiritual strength and fidelity are present as the message of emblems of heat. When His physical presence is ignored or shunned, carnal weakness, fear and infidelity are present as the message of emblems of cold. Heat attracts and cold repels.

La Ceppede sets the stage for these properties of heat and cold in the Garden of Gethsemane account. Jesus separates Himself from His Apostles to pray in solitude. On returning He finds them asleep, unfaithful to vigi- lance. Their sleep is seen as cold due to Jesus' absence while their awaken- ing is seen as warmth due to Jesus' presence. Jesus addresses them:

Ah! If heat it is that keeps our senses awake, If the cool of mist keeps our eyes closed tight, No wonder then that far from your Sun, You slumber sad until its return.

(I, i, 42, vv. 5_8)6

La Ceppede has prepared the context for his emblematic prayer:

Stray not then from me, 0 Sun of my soul; For losing the warmth of your sacred flame, I am now lethargically stumbling into the depths of Hell.

(I, i, 42, vv. 12-14)7

This prayer of the devout poet is in effect both the emblem design and its moral interpretation. The emblematic structure is in the point of contact between the devout poet and Jesus in the combination "Sun of my soul," both terms of the God/man dyad caught in one single glance, an incongruous composite in that the sun is a visual (physical) reference and the soul is a spiritual one. But once the contact is lost, once Jesus as

6Jean de La Ceppede, Les Theoremes sur le sacrd myst're de notre redemption: Reproduction de l'idition de Toulouse de 1613-1622 (Geneva: Droz, 1966). References to individual sonnets of the The'oremes appear in the text and will follow the three figure system. The first figure in upper case Roman numerals indicates the Part; the second figure in lower case Roman numerals indicates the Book; the third figure in Arabic numerals indicates the individual sonnet. The translations are mine.

Ha si c'est la chaleur qui les sens nous esueille, Si la froide vapeur nous tient les yeux sillez, Loin de vostre Soleil, ce n'est pas grand merueille Si iusqu'a son retour, tristes vous sommeillez.

7Ne m'esloignez donc point, 6 Soleil de mon ame; Car perdant la chaleur de vostre sainte flame Me voila Lethargique aux Enfers tresbucher.




heat-radiant sun is gone, the poet envisions the interior moral drama that ensues. He sees himself as weak and stumbling into sinful ways which lead to hell.

After Jesus has been arrested, His Apostles flee in fear. Whereas their close association with their Master was emblematized in terms of heat, their flight from Him due to fear is emblematized in terms of cold:

Oh, disloyal fear, how your cold cinders Suffocate for a while the brazier of Faith.

(I, i, 81, vv. 13-14)8

In this well-executed antithesis the concrete vehicles of "cinders" and "brazier" with their respective tactile sensations of cold and heat and visual qualities of darkness and light are immediately evoked in a dyadic schema of opposites. Simultaneously, the abstraction fear is linked to the tactile cold just as the abstraction faith is linked to the tactile heat by its relation to "brazier." Thus, each sensory element of the design is accompanied by its moral (abstract) interpretation. In addition, the over- riding moral drama of the emblem, "disloyal fear," is given predomi- nance by virtue of its function as direct address and thus could well serve as the emblem design's inscriptio. Disloyal fear is perceived in concrete and sensorial terms as the action of cold, dark cinders smothering hot, light coals and simultaneously in abstract terms as fear overpower- ing faith. The entire composite presents a simultaneous interaction in one schematic picture between opposites and among levels of perception:

opposites levels of perception "cinders" - "brazier" concrete

cold - heat tactile sensation picture dark -light visual sensation fear -faith abstraction - interpretation

The principle of attraction is nowhere more evident in the The'oremes than in the account of Peter's denials and conversion. Jesus has warned that a cock would crow at each of Peter's denials. Peter refused to be- lieve this and promised never to deny his Master. When he does pro- nounce his first denial, Peter does not recognize in the cock's crow the fulfillment of Jesus' warning:

So overcome is he by terrifying fear Alas! In vain this voice leads him To keep his word. In vain, this fish-hook

80 desloyale peur comme ta froide cendre Suffoque pour un temps le brasier de la Foy.




Aims to catch this Fisher, nothing but a piece of ice This undertow now sweeps far from shore.

(I, ii, 5, vv. 4-8)9

Once again fear is perceived as cold. Peter is but a piece of ice carried away in the sea by his denial ("this undertow") far from his Master, the shore. The warning crow of the cock ("this voice") is a fish-hook incapa- ble of catching or preventing the fisherman Peter from making his denial. The identification of "voice" and "fish-hook" provides an incongruous visual composite of a cock-shaped fish-hook in pursuit of a hu- manoid piece of ice being carried away from the shore. This rather bizarre identification is its own link between emblem and meaning, picture and interpretation, visual design and moral drama.

Peter's quest for warmth at a source other than the true source of heat, his Master, is in evidence at his second denial. The cock crows again to announce his failure to keep his promise never to deny his Master:

Peter at the knaves' fire was thawing his ice When this misfortune hit to render him a perjurer.... See how he, who once death did brave, Now away from peril staggers cold and pale And gives up without fight at the sound of battle-horn.

(II, ii, 26, vv. 3-4, 9-11)10

La Ceppede emblematizes this second denial in a tableau representing a cold soldier, normally intrepid, but now trembling fearful and surren- dering at the sound of the battle horn blown by the cock. Fire and cold are juxtaposed but Peter's fear is not melted because the heat does not emanate from Jesus. This constitutes the incongruous element of the emblematic picture. Cold overcomes heat and fear overcomes courage in the battle between these two poles.

Peter's third denial is preceded by a hint of courage but when he is told that he was seen with the prisoner Jesus and that his accent betrays him, his cold fear is in command: "At these words fright freezes his

9Tant l'effrayante peur hors de soy le transporte C'est helas! pour neant que cette voix le porte A garder sa promesse. En vain cet hameqon Veut pescher ce Pescheur, qui n'est plus qu'vn glaqon Qu'ores ce coup de mer loin du riuage emporte.

'0Pierre au feu des valets sa glace degeloit Quand ce malheur l'atteint pour le rendre pariure.... Voila comme celui, qui bravoit la mort mesme Esloigne du peril, chancele froid, & blesme Des qu'on sonne la charge, & se rend sans combat.




blood" (I, ii, 28, v. 9). 11 He pronounces his third denial. La Ceppede sees Peter's impossibility to rid himself of cold fear at a fire which is not his Master: "The more this frightened soul denies and is probed / The more he goes near fire and the more he shivers" (I, ii, 29, vv. 1-2).12 It is evident throughout that regardless of how much Peter attempts to relieve his physical sense of cold by warming himself at worldly fires, his spiritual cold of fear remains until it is warmed by the heat radiated by the Master's presence.

Peter finally receives the grace of conversion when he becomes aware of his Master's glance. It is interesting to note here that, whereas Peter's three denials were seen as the chill of fear overcoming heat, his conversion is now first emblematized not as heat overcoming cold but as a dart of light overcoming darkness. The conversion is first a cognitive one. Peter recognizes his sin. The light of truth brought by Jesus' glance pierces the darkness of Peter's ignorance of his sin. Heat has been changed to light in true baroque fashion of gratuitous metamorphosis. Heat and light become but different sensorial articulations of the same message. The conversion is first emblematized as a glance coming from Jesus, the Shepherd, piercing the wall of the consistory where Jesus is being examined. The glance touches Peter, the sheep, moving him to recognize his sin. The glance has the qualities of the love sonnet's coup de foudre, the Petrarchan innamoramento:

Jesus, who is less grieved at his own suffering Than to see his sheep stray from the flock, (Piercing the wall) glances at it and so moves it That it knows its fault and is taken aback. As soon as the Apostle was touched by this glance, The recent prediction of his triple sin Repeats in his memory with hundreds of regrets.

(I, ii, 29, vv. 5-11)13

The artificiality or incongruity of a wall pierced by a glance and separat- ing a consistory from a sheep pasture gives the mysterious nature to this

"A ces mots la frayeur luy reglace le sang.

12Plus cet effrai6 nie & plus on le tempeste Plus iH est pres du feu, plus il a de frisson.

13Iesus, qui de sa peine a moins de marrisson Que de voir sa brebis de son troupeau distraite (Faucant le mur) l'oeillade, & l'emeut de facon Qu'elle cognoit sa faute, & passe a la retraicte. Des que de ce regard l'Apostre fut touche Le recent prognostic de son triple peche Sa memoire rebat, cent regrets l'accompaignent.




allegory of grace. The tableau is static and dyadic but the movement that is conversion by grace can take place only because the two figures, though separated, are linked artificially by the dart of a glance that pierces the wall. La Ceppede is so insistent on the reader's full compre- hension of the moral drama of conversion emblematized in this artificial composite that he explains in his note to the sonnet the supernatural meaning of this natural impossibility:

Now this detail piercing the wall is placed here to show . that Jesus' glance was not exterior and corporeal but rather interior, spiritual and divine, since at that time the Savior was detained in a closed place, out of his Disciple's sight.

(I, ii, 29, note 3)14

Immediately after La Ceppede has emblematized the cognitive as- pect of Peter's conversion in the light/dark schema, he returns to the emotional component of conversion by resuming the heat/cold schema, melting the cold of Peter's fear, but also not abandoning the light/dark schema. The emblem takes shape in a cosmic context as the process of snow melting under the influence of heat:

In shaded valleys heaped-up snow Often petrifies under the cold Cup-bearer Then dissolves into water when the divine Twin Has attached his flaming coach to Virgo.

(I, ii, 30, vv. 1-4)15

La Ceppede's commentary explains his references to the zodiac. The "cold Cup-bearer" represents January's sign of Aquarius while the "divine Twin," the sun, tying his flaming coach to Virgo, represents the month of August (I, ii, 30, note 1). The tableau is a simple one. In the cold of winter drifted snow becomes hard as rock in a shaded valley. (The play on words with Peter's name in the French verb "S'empierre" is pure ornament.) In the warmth of summer the shaded valley is illumi- nated and heated by the "flaming coach" of the sun. The snow melts. Heat has conquered cold and light has conquered darkness. A cosmic metamorphosis has taken place.

140r ce trait faucant le mur est icy affecte pour exprimer . . . que le regard de Iesus-Christ ne fut point exterieur, & corporel; ains interieur, spiritual & diuin, pour estre lors le Sauueur detenu en lieu ferme, hors de la veie de son Disciple.

'5Dans les valons ombreux la neige amoncelee S'empierre maintesfois sous le froid Echanson, Puis se resout en eau quand le diuin Besson A sa flambante coche a la Vierge attelee.




The cosmic emblem is next applied to Peter's fear and his conversion. Drifted snow is Peter's icy fear and the sun's entering the sign of Virgo is the fiery glance projected by the Son of the Virgin to convert Peter (Cephas) and melt his fear:

Likewise, fear concealed in Peter's heart Had become ice among these Basilisks, But now the Virgin-breast's Virgin Nursling With the fire of a single glance has suddenly thawed it. (I, ii, 30, vv. 5-8)16

Peter's personal metamorphosis explains and parallels the cosmic metamorphosis and is the substance of the moral drama of which the cosmic metamorphosis is the emblem. This is precisely the emblematic proce- dure of picture accompanied by its interpretation. It must be noted that La Ceppede's penchant for emblematics is so strong that even his interpretation of an emblematic design is here couched in another emblematic design. Fear is a block of ice instantly melted by the fire of Jesus' glance. Opposite tactile sensation (ice/fire) are aligned with their intan- gible referents (fear/glance). The effect of one on the other, fire on ice, signifies the moral drama portrayed by this schema, the effect of Jesus' glance on Peter's fear. In addition, Jesus' medicinal glance is in contra- position to that of the poisonous "Basilisks," which are, La Ceppede points out in his commentary (I, ii, 30, note 3), the most vicious of ser- pents which kill men with their looks. They represent those, notes La Ceppede, who provided false warmth for Peter, accused him of know- ing Jesus and instilled in him cold fear. Only Jesus' glance is medicinal and salvific.

It would be presumptuous to insist that La Ceppede ranks among the greatest poets for his poetry is repelete with as much ornamentation as profundity. One gets the impression that in the wake of the Council of Trent the devout poet is constantly trying to balance pageantry with faith, form with content. Yet, it cannot be denied that La Ceppede does succeed admirably in establishing in his The'oremes a rich plexus of sensorial signs which he first fits into a schematic framework and then interprets for his reader, letting his structured emblematic design eventually unfold an interior drama of faith.

16La peur de mesme au coeur de Cephas recelee Parmy ces Basilics s'estoit faite vn glaqon, Mais or' du Vierge-sein le Vierge Nourriqon Au feu d'vn seul regard 1'a bien-tost degele.




IdI

LXXIII 1

Lateurs de court ticnet la paff; aulx mains,

A tous venantz faifans des fenriables: Iufqucs a tant quc par tours inhumains7 Aurot faoullez leurs cuurs infaciables, Pour fe monfirer enuers tous amyables, Ont grand babd auccques peu d'effai6t: Merucille n'eft fi leur cueur cohtrefaidt, Ha maintes gens reculez en arriere: Car toufiours ot par leur vouloir infaid Langue deuant & le cueur en arriere.



emblematic representations of heat and cold in la ceppede's theoremes

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