Camille Zimmerman

Medieval Christianity and the Natural World

Art and literature based upon secular knowledge (such as maps and encyclopedias) instead of ecclesiastical knowledge (such as psalters and the gospels) were being produced in greater numbers by the 13th-15th century. This was due in part to the rediscovery of Classical texts during the Crusades.

Although most of their knowledge base came from Antiquity, medieval scholars would always connect scientific findings to Christian dogma in some ways.

I will be focusing on bestiaries, which were collected descriptions and images of plant and animal life. These were used as tools which transmitted medieval knowledge about the natural world and its place in Christian theology.

Medieval Knowledge

“Most of these objects served piety, belief and devotion, having been intended to confirm, clarify, and ‘make visible’ Christian doctrine…the pieces examined here, however, emanate from, and functioned primarily within the mundane sphere of medieval life. Within these societies such distinctions between ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions were often vague, thus the materials they produced…functioned in different spheres at different times”

- Nancy Netzer Secular Sacred

Medieval Understanding of the Corporeal World

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.Genesis, 1. 26

In the middle ages, it was believed that God gave mankind two revelations of His divinity. The first was the Bible. The second was nature itself.

Biblical Creation

Early 13th century English manuscript.

Includes information about countless animals, plants, minerals, and even the nature of humans.

This manuscript clearly combines scientific study with theological information. This is clear in the opening pages, which reference the creation of the animals in Genesis. This image suggests that while medieval scholars largely understood the biological workings of the animal kingdom, they still attributed life to divine power.

The Aberdeen Bestiary

These are animals which would have been quite familiar to the writers and readers of this manuscript.

As such, the accounts of the animal’s behavior and appearance is usually very detailed, correct, and observant.

These animals are still connected to Christian beliefs, and their common behaviors are often attributed to a divine connection. However, these attributes are usually more general than fantastical, possibly because the writers would have been intimately familiar with the realistically humble nature of most of the animals.

Domestic Animals

“No creature is more intelligent than the dog, for dogs have more understanding than other animals; they alone recognise their names and love their masters. Finally, their nature is that they cannot exist without man. In some ways preachers are like dogs: by their admonitions and righteous ways they are always driving off the ambushes laid by the Devil, lest he seize and carry off God's treasure - Christian souls. As the dog's tongue, licking a wound, heals it, the wounds of sinners, laid bare in confession, are cleansed by the correction of the priest. As the dog's tongue heals man's internal wounds, the secrets of his heart are often purified by the deeds and discourse of the Church's teachers. As the dog is said to be temperate in its ways, the man who is set over others diligently studies wisdom and must avoid drunkenness and gluttony in every way, for Sodom perished in a surfeit of food. Indeed, there is no quicker way for the Devil, his enemy, to take possession of man than through his greedy gullet. The dog returning to its vomit signifies those who, after making their confession, heedlessly return to wrongdoing. The dog leaving its meat behind in the river, out of desire for its shadow, signifies foolish men who often forsake what is theirs by right out of desire for some unknown object; with the result that, while they are unable to obtain the object of their desire, they needlessly lose what they have given up”.

Dogs

‘Dogs and their Habits’

“It is fleet-footed and never runs in a straight line but twists and turns. It is a clever, crafty animal. When it is hungry and can find nothing to eat, it rolls itself in red earth so that it seems to be stained with blood, lies on the ground and holds it breath, so that it seems scarcely alive. When birds see that it is not breathing, that it is flecked with blood and that its tongue is sticking out of its mouth, they think that it is dead and descend to perch on it. Thus it seizes them and devours them. The Devil is of a similar nature. For to all who live by the flesh he represents himself as dead until he has them in his gullet and punishes them. But to spiritual men, living in the faith, he is truly dead and reduced to nothing”.

Foxes

“The silver-covered dove is the Church, instructed by the teaching of the holy word. The dove has a right and a left eye, signifying moral and mystic perception. With the left eye the dove regards itself, but with the right, it contemplates God. It has two wings, signifying the active and the contemplative life. At rest, it is covered by them; in flight, it is raised by them to heavenly things. We are in flight, when we are in a state of ecstasy. We are at rest when we are among our brothers in a sober state of mind. Feathers are set in these wings. They are teachers, fixed in the wings of righteous behaviour and the contemplation of God”.

Doves

Birds always held a special significance in the medieval world. Birds were thought to have a special knowledge of God because they flew in the sky (the ‘heavens’), which is unlike any other type of animal.

Image is late 13th cent., of St. Francis preaching to birds. Many believed that birds could learn from preaching and the Scriptures because of the ‘special knowledge’ they had.

These were animals that both the Western medieval writer and reader would most likely not have ever seen in person. These animals were, however, well documented in other academic manuscripts or first-hand accounts.

Unsurprisingly, many of these accounts were exaggerated or misinterpreted. As a result, much of the biological information given about the animals are incorrect. This also leads to even more fantastic Biblical connections, as readers would not have been familiar enough with the animals to contest such claims.

Exotic Animals

“There is an animal called the panther, multi-coloured, very beautiful and extremely gentle. Physiologus says of it, that it has only the dragon as an enemy. When it has fed and is full, it hides in its den and sleeps. After three days it awakes from its sleep and gives a great roar, and from its mouth comes a very sweet odour, as if it were a mixture of every perfume. When other animals hear its voice, they follow wherever it goes, because of the sweetness of its scent. Only the dragon, hearing its voice, is seized by fear and flees into the caves beneath the earth”.

Panther

“There is an animal called the hyena, which inhabits the tombs of the dead and feeds on their bodies. Its nature is that it is sometimes male, sometimes female, and it is therefore an unclean animal. It stalks the sheepfolds of shepherds and circles their houses by night, and by listening carefully learns their speech, so that it can imitate the human voice, in order to fall on any man whom it has lured out at night. The sons of Israel resemble the hyena. At the beginning they served the living God. Later, addicted to wealth and luxury, they worshipped idols. For this reason the prophet compared the synagogue to an unclean animal”.

Hyena

“Apes are called simie in Latin because the similarity between their mentality and that of humans is felt to be great. The ape does not have a tail. The Devil has the form of an ape, with a head but no tail. The Devil began as an angel in heaven. But inside he was a hypocrite and a deceiver, and he lost his tail, because he will perish totally at the end”.

Apes

Initial H from Moralia in Job. Image in Dale’s Monsters, Corporeal Deformities, and Phantasms in the Cloister of St-Michel-de-Cuxa

These are mythical animals. While these are sometimes openly discussed as ‘imaginary’, most were believed to truly exist, just in a very exotic location.

This type of animal was usually attributed the most fantastical Biblical connections, and many of their habits are compared to actions in the life of Christ.

Imaginary Animals

“When it observes that it has grown old, it erects a funeral pyre for itself from small branches of aromatic plants, and having turned to face the rays of the sun, beating its wings, it deliberately fans the flames for itself and is consumed in the fire. But on the ninth day after that, the bird rises from its own ashes. Our Lord Jesus Christ displays the features of this bird, saying: 'I have the power to lay down my life and to take it again' (see John, 10:18). If, therefore, the phoenix has the power to destroy and revive itself, why do fools grow angry at the word of God, who is the true son of God, who says: 'I have the power to lay down my life and to take it again'? For it is a fact that our Saviour descended from heaven; he filled his wings with the fragrance of the Old and New Testaments; he offered himself to God his father for our sake on the altar of the cross; and on the third he day he rose again”.

Phoenix

“The bird called caladrius, as Physiologus tells us, is white all over; it has no black parts. If anyone is sick, he will learn from the caladrius if he is to live or die. If, therefore, a man's illness is fatal, the caladrius will turn its head away from the sick man as soon as it sees him, and everyone knows that the man is going to die. But if the man's sickness is one from which he will recover, the bird looks him in the face and takes the entire illness upon itself; it flies up into the air, towards the sun, burns off the sickness and scatters it, and the sick man is cured. The caladrius represents our Saviour. Our Lord is pure white without a trace of black, 'who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth' (1 Peter, 2:22). The Lord, moreover, coming from on high, turned his face from the Jews, because they did not believe, and turned to us, Gentiles, taking away our weakness and carrying our sins; raised up on the wood of the cross and ascending on high, 'he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, (Ephesians, 4:8). Each day Christ, like the caladrius, attends us in our sickness, examines our mind when we confess, and heals those to whom he shows the grace of repentance. But he turns his face away from those whose heart he knows to be unrepentant. These he casts off; but those to whom he turns his face, he makes whole again”.

Caladrius

“The Devil is like the dragon; he is the most monstrous serpent of all; he is often aroused from his cave and causes the air to shine because, emerging from the depths, he transforms himself into the angel of light and deceives the foolish with hopes of vainglory and worldly pleasure. The dragon is said to be crested, as the Devil wears the crown of the king of pride. The dragon's strength lies not in its teeth but its tail, as the Devil, deprived of his strength, deceives with lies those whom he draws to him. The dragon lurks around paths along which elephants pass, as the Devil entangles with the knots of sin the way of those bound for heaven and, like the dragon, kills them by suffocation; because anyone who dies fettered in the chains of his offences is condemned without doubt to hell”

Dragons