popular representations of the trinity in england, 990-1300

Popular Representations of the Trinity in England, 990-1300Author(s): Ursula RowlattSource: Folklore, Vol. 112, No. 2 (Oct., 2001), pp. 201-210Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260834 .

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Topics, Notes and Comments 201

* the chthonic nature of the demon's abode; * the connection with water; * the release of captives (water/maidens; cows/water/wives). The similarities do not permit them to be considered as autonomous structures articulated independently in different narrative traditions, but it is less easy, perhaps, to be sure what the relationship between folktale and myth is in this case. The obvious interpretation is that the folktale is the folkloric remains of the old myth.

However, it is possible to take the opposite view, and argue that important sequences of both myth and folktale can be traced to the well-defined and recurring patterns of a familiar Indo-European folktale type, "The Bear's Son." As we know, some scholars have suggested that the English epic Beowulf, too, has its origin in the crude substance of this folktale.

References Cited

Hardy, E. "Die Vedische-bramanische Period der Religion des alten Indiens." 2 Teile. Munster i.W. (Darstellungen aus dem Gebiete der nichtchristlichen Religionsgeschichte) (1893):9-10.

Hillebrandt, Alfred. Vedische Mythologie. Vol. 2. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1965.

Macdonell, A. A. Vedic Mythology. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1974. Perry, E. D. "Indra in the Rig-Veda." Journal of the American Oriental Society 11 (1882):142-5. Pischel, R. and K. Geldner. Vedische Studien 1 (1891). ROnnow, K. Trita Aptiya, Eine vedische Gottheit. Uppsala: A.-B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1927. Roth, R. "Die Sage von Feridun in Indien und Iran." ZDMG 2 (1848).

Biographical Note Mehri Bagheri is Professor of Linguistics and Iranian Culture and Old Languages. She is Head of the Department of Culture and Old Languages of Iran at Tabriz University, Iran, and Chief Librarian of the Faculties of Letters and Social Sciences. She has published extensively in Persian periodicals and also in Canada, India, Germany and Taiwan.

Popular Representations of the Trinity in England, 990-1300

Ursula Rowlatt

To the ordinary layman in England in 990-1300, whether knight or peasant, a sense of divine power was omnipresent. Trinitarian belief was expressed on all sides by the frequent use of the blessing "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," whether by priests during Mass or by the laity under good or bad circumstances of daily life. Evil spirits were confounded by making the sign of the cross or by sprinkling water or salt which had been made holy by consecration by the priest in the name of the Trinity. Possibly, the existence of the Trinity was better understood by the faithful, who were fully aware of the importance of gesture, than the intellectual concept of salvation by a crucified God in human form, as emphasised by Saint Paul. However, both



202 Topics, Notes and Comments

aspects of the cross came together in the Mass. The priest blessed the people in the name of the Trinity at the beginning and end of the service but the central part, in which the sign of the cross was made frequently, was a celebration of the events of the Last Supper.

A detailed treatment of the doctrine of the Trinity appeared in a series of Old English Catholic homilies written by Aelfric of Eynsham in 992 (Grundy 1991, 25). Although a well-educated Benedictine monk, he was anxious to address the priests and people in a language that they understood. His discourse added little to that of Saint Augustine (De Trinitate). Subtle refinements were added to Catholic doctrine in the thirteenth century under the influence of scholastic arguments that were being elaborated in France by Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Bonaventura and others. These were transmitted to the laity in a simplified form by the preaching friars, who had been trained themselves at the University of Paris. Furthermore, annual confession had been made obligatory in 1215 at the Fourth Lateran Council so that a priest had an opportunity to talk privately to the penitents and to correct errors as well as giving them absolution for their sins.

To make the sign of the cross in the approved manner, the priest held his right hand uplifted with the palm facing outwards towards the people, with his thumb and first two fingers extended to represent the Trinity, the remaining two fingers being flexed to represent the human and divine natures of Christ. Slowly, he made a vertical stroke in the air from forehead to breast, then from the left shoulder to the right (Cabrol 1934, 230). During Mass, the people knelt on the floor, stood for the reading of the gospel, and knelt again at the ringing of the Sanctus bell, when the holiest part of the service was about to begin. It would have been appropriate for the laity, who worshipped in the nave, to say private prayers quietly to themselves while Mass was being said in Latin in the chancel; responses were made on their behalf by the acolyte (server). A homily would have been preached between the reading of the gospel and the central canon of the Mass but the question of how often and of what quality is still being discussed (Shinners 1997, 29). Boyle, in reviewing the contents of manuals of popular theology written before 1215, found that simple pastoral expositions on God, the Trinity and the Incarnation were rare (Boyle 1985, 39). Preaching was seen more as moral instruction than as a proclamation of the Word of God.

The church itself had been blessed at the time of consecration by the bishop, who made the sign of the cross, inside and outside at prescribed places marked by a metal inlay or stone incision. The altar was anointed with holy (consecrated) oil at its centre and four corners (Anderson 1955, 40 and 45). Other, so-called votive crosses were scratched into the outer walls, presumably made on the spur of the moment by worshippers. Many churches were named for the Holy Trinity (Raw 1997, 12). Between Sunday and weekly services, the church and churchyard were used for markets, fairs and courts, despite repeated prohibitions by kings and bishops (Harding 1993, 90). However, the laity were extraordinarily devout, for it was in response to popular demand that Thomas a Becket obtained papal permission in the mid-twelfth century to introduce a special feast called Trinity Sunday on the first Sunday after Pentecost (Hardon 1980, 548); it became general in 1334.

Baptism was the most important sacrament after the Mass. It was performed,




as was confirmation, in the presence of the whole parish on Easter Saturday, when the faithful renewed their own baptismal commitment (Steuart 1953, 221). Emphasis was on the use of running water, or total immersion in the case of babies. So important was it that a sick infant should not die before being baptised, that Gerald of Wales in the thirteenth century insisted that all parish priests should instruct their parishioners as to how to conduct the ceremony themselves if need be. They were:

to say these words while immersing the child three times: "I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" ... it does not matter whether the words are in Latin, even though incorrectly said, or one's native tongue, as long as the sense is expressed (Gerald of Wales).

Godparents, who had to be present, took Christian vows on the infant's behalf and were expected to teach the developing child about the faith, as far as they were able.

Other sacramental services using consecrated water, salt or oil were performed by the priest in the church porch or, in the case of extreme unction, in the dying person's home. Exorcism also was an important part of his duties. It should take place, with much solemnity, in the church in front of witnesses, and under no circumstances should it be undertaken lightly (Summers 1926, 209).

Any oath, such as the fealty oath of loyalty to a superior, was carried out also with much solemnity and with religious intent to make it binding. Many matters of criminal responsibility were settled by a trial by ordeal until 1215, when it was abolished in favour of adjudication by priests after the legal issues had been presented. The Old English Textus Roffensis says that the witnesses to the trial must be sprinkled with holy water, must kiss the holy gospels, and be blessed with a sign of the cross. The accused was required to drink holy water, and holy water was sprinkled on the hand which would carry out the ordeal. These details show that the church wished to make the ordeal a serious event not open to the public for their pleasure (Deanesly 1963, 332).

Poetry may reasonably be expected to be a suitable medium for meditation on as important a subject as the Trinity but passages in which it is invoked by name are surprisingly rare. Thomas D. Hill found that:

while the name god, "God," occurs hundreds of times and the name crist, "Christ," over 120 times, I have identified only eight passages in Old English poetry in which the poet or a character within the poem addresses the Trinity (Hill 1981, 260).

He gives two allusions to the Trinity in Christ I as examples and notes that in all eight instances, the invoker is in grave physical or spiritual danger. Similar prayers called Lorica (breastplate) were recited as a means of protection against real and unknown ills by Celtic Christians; Wilfrid Bonser cites the following:

Help, O oneness of the Trinity, have pity, O threeness of Unity so that neither the mortality of this year nor the vanity of the world may draw me [down] with it (Bonser 1963, 246).

Little lyrical poetry survives before the thirteenth century; but thereafter, Eng- land, alone in Europe, showed a marked preponderance of sacred over profane




lyrics (Dronke 1996, 63). However, the lyrics were "largely versifications of the Pater Noster and Creed, confession of sins, Levation prayers and other ejacula- tory and simple, extra-liturgical prayers" (Woolf 1968, 3). Their purpose was to persuade the average Christian to ponder and feel what he already believed (ibid., 13). Many such lyrics were set to music, the basic unit being of three beats, which appeared suddenly in 1150. The only explanation proposed by medieval writers is that the ternary grouping corresponds to the Trinity (see, for example, Lambertus Aristoteles c. 1255; in Bukofzer 1942, 177).

Attempts had been made since the earliest days of the Church to present religious ideas to the illiterate by means of art. [1] In that the doctrine of the Trinity is intrinsically hard to illustrate, the simplest way of referring to it was by certain diagrams involving three components; such were the trefoil, an equilateral triangle, an eye within a triangle, a circle within a triangle or a triangle within a circle, a triquetra (a continuous interweaving of three arcs), a triskelion (a three-sided, swirling figure within a circle), and three interwoven circles (Child and Colles 1971, 44; Post 1975, 16; Sill 1976, 207). Any use of three identical human figures, although accepted by the Eastern Church in memory of Abraham's three angelic visitors (Genesis 18:1-8), was prohibited in the West because of its suggestions of tritheism (Anderson 1971, 95). A partially verbal representation of the Trinity is the thirteenth-century so-called "Arms (or Em- blem) of the Trinity" in which a heraldic device is composed of a "Y" inscribed with a list of what the Trinity is, surrounded by a "U" stating what the Trinity is not (Child and Colles 1971, 49).

Wholly pictorial images of the Trinity were composed of a right hand of God the Father, a lamb or a figure of Christ, and a bird for the Holy Spirit. Following the account of the baptism of Christ in the gospels, the bird should be a dove but it often looked more like an eagle, a goose or a stylised creature of no recognisable species. The most sophisticated composition, dating from the twelfth century but becoming much commoner later, was the so-called "Throne of Grace" in which a sitting or standing figure of the Father held a Christ- bearing cross in front of his chest with the dove in full flight in between so that its wings touched the mouth of God and the mouth or head of Christ (Legge 1907, 233). A thirteenth-century roof boss in the Lady Chapel of Chester Cathedral is a particularly good example of this arrangement (Cave 1948, 23).

Another famous image of the Trinity is carved on a stone font in the church of Castle Frome, Herefordshire (Bond 1908, 52) a county rich in twelfth-century sculpture (see Figure 1). A vertical hand of God is giving his blessing to a small human form in a basin of water containing four fishes; a dove hovers nearby. The baptism is being conducted by an adult, a robed figure with a halo and a maniple, presumably John the Baptist. A thirteenth-century stone carving above the bishop's chair in the Chapter House of Salisbury Cathedral is composed of a single head with three faces in which the central face shares each of its eyes with those of the face on either side. Such a design may be a reinterpretation of an ancient Gallo-Roman monumental motif used in the first to third centuries (Pettazoni 1946, 135).

Somewhat remote Trinitarian symbolism may be seen in the layout of some churches, but this is disputed (Anderson 1955, 35). Thorney Abbey Church, founded by Bishop Aethelwold in the tenth century, was said by him to be




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tripartite in its unity in praise of the Trinity and to three saints of whom he was fond. He referred not so much to architectural form as to dedication of three altars in one church as symbolising the three persons in the consubstantial unity of God (Gem 1983, 14). Church windows were sometimes arranged in groups of three; whether the importance of the Trinity was implied by this arrangement is uncertain, but symbolic significance was so much a part of everyday existence in the Middle Ages that the possibility should be considered (Metford 1983, 236).

Numbers have been used from earliest times as a foundation for elaborate symbol-building, each number possessing its own individuality and having a power of its own (Chevalier and Gheerbrant 1994, 706). From the philosophical point of view, three is of paramount importance: we live in a three-dimensional world, combined within the parameters of length, breadth and height; we are surrounded by past, present and future events; everything that we do has a beginning, middle and end; arguments proceed from thesis to antithesis to synthesis; there are three primary colours from which all other colours may be obtained (Schimmel 1993, 60).




Three is the holiest number in a wide range of cultures (King 1996, 59), and medieval Christianity is no exception. The Kyrie-Christe eleison, the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei are repeated three times in the course of a Low Mass and in addition, in the course of a High Mass, the censer is swung three times to waft incense over altar, servers and people. Conversely, a necromancer repeated the holy words and procedures before commanding demons to do his will, because the very existence of ritual and the number three were essential if magic was to ape the mysterious power of church practice (Kieckhefer 1990, 167).

Biblical stories would have been read out in church during Mass. Allusions to the number three include: a three year-old cow, goat or ram were requested by God of Abraham; Jonah spent three days inside the whale; the darkness that came over Egypt lasted for three days; there were three men in the fiery furnace; the cock crowed three times as Saint Peter denied Christ, the denial being cancelled by the triple explicit request by Christ to feed his flock; Christ was crucified with two others; he rose from the dead on the third day; and so on. There are many other examples from the Old and New Testaments.

Inevitably, the number three permeated popular culture in the Middle Ages in a quasi-magical form, particularly in medical lore: three different ingredients in a potion constitute a remedy; a drink or salve should be applied three times a day or for three days; a magician must spit three times while performing a charm; he must boil ingredients three times (Storms 1948, 97). As before, the adevil, in imitation, works his magic in threes; people often die three days after a spirit or demon has touched them, release from possession by ghosts takes place on the third day, the intersection of three roads is considered to be a place of danger, and the gallows stands on three legs (Schimmel 1993, 75).

Talismanic use of the sign of the cross in daily life was probably the commonest corruption of accepted Christian practice. If crops could be blessed by the priest, in great solemnity in the sight of the people on Rogation Days, the sign of the cross could be used by anyone to encourage vegetables to grow. God was the source of all true cures so that a beneficial plant, sanctioned by tradition, should be blessed by the lay person before it was eaten (Hunt 1990, 78); alternatively, the Creed and the "Our Father" should be pronounced while a medicinal herb was being gathered; a change of words would convert a pagan belief to a Christian one (ibid., 80). Cattle and farm animals were blessed; workmen made the sign of the cross over their tools to reduce the chance of injury; a flow of blood from wounds inflicted in combat could be staunched in this way (Pelikan 1985, 97). A fever could be cured or a hysteric quietened at the sign of the cross; a surgeon would make a cross-shaped incision at the beginning of an intra-cranial procedure (Finucane 1977, 65). Even innocent practices such as the making of a cross in the centre of a loaf of bread to make sure that it cooked evenly raised the possibility of holy enchantment. For this reason, Henry III in 1252 issued a mandate that bakers in the counties of Essex and Hereford were forbidden to follow this sensible course of action (Opie and Tatem 1989, 107); however, the tradition of placing a cross on an Easter bun survives to this day. [2]

Various anecdotes about the use of the sign of the cross are recorded by the chroniclers of the High Middle Ages. For example, Caesarius of Heisterbach described an incident in which two young men, while out riding, saw a woman




in a linen robe on the other side of a stream. Thinking that she might have been practising magic because it was Midsummer Eve, they crossed the stream to arrest her but she ran away faster than their horses could gallop, only to disappear when they made the sign of the cross (Caesarius 1929, vol. 1 chap. 5 section 30). John of Salisbury recounted the story of Saint Benedict, who is said to have made the sign of the cross over a cup containing poison, which then shattered as though struck with a stone (1972, 56).

Another potent source of divine power was obtained by sprinkling holy water, as in the case of severe damage to a church tower in a thunderstorm at Winchcombe in 1091. A fearful stench accompanied the disaster but the monks, showing great courage, rushed into the church and by the liberal use of holy water managed to prevent further destruction by the "wiles of the Evil One" (William of Malmesbury 1998, 569). Occasionally, mere sprinkling of water needed to be followed by more robust methods, but in the main, the procedure was valued greatly. Because water that had been consecrated properly in the name of the Trinity was required, theft from a baptismal font was a popular practice, so that its contents had to be protected securely (Bond 1908, 281; Kittredge 1929, 150). Oil and salt used in various sacraments also needed to be guarded against thieves. Walter Map recounted a story in which a knight sprinkled blessed salt on a fish that he thought might have been doctored by a nephew, a follower of an unnamed heretical sect, and reported that "suddenly the fish disappeared and there on the dish was left some substance like pellets of hare dung" (Map 1983, 121).

Much of the force of rituals used in "angelic and demonic magic" involved devotional and mystical elements (Fanger 1998, vii). Some senior members of the clergy had been attracted to astrology in their youth, later to attack it vigorously, as had Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1235-53) (Southern 1986, 141). The difference was that magical practices attempted to coerce supernatural forces, not to beseech their help (Peters 1978, xvi; Merrifield 1987, xiii). Superstition was accompanied by fear and uncertainty, being clearly man-made and subject to various interpretations according to local custom. A spiritual benefit was seen as being a personal, gratuitous blessing from God.

More or less unsuccessful attempts were made to capture the essence of the Trinity using analogy: water, snow and ice or the identical reflection in several fragments of a broken mirror (Ackerman 1966, 92); heat, brilliance and light, which are inseparably linked in fire; the sun, its light and burning rays; or a rose tree, its flowers and its fragrance as recommended by John of Damascus (1980, 20). There was a passion for similitudes of all kinds among the preaching friars, some of whom carried little pocket books containing prompts (d'Avray 1985, 9). However, Saint Augustine realised that the essentially non-worldly nature of Godhead was not conveyed by these means. In his De Trinitate, he suggested the profound and articulate formulation of the lover, the beloved and love itself. Even more profoundly, he realised that, by implication, God's pronouncement in Genesis 1:26 (Authorised and Revised Standard Versions), "Let man be created in our image, after our likeness," meant that man himself is the true image of the Trinity. Theologians have debated this matter endlessly to the present day (see, for example, Gunton 1997).

In conclusion, many attempts were made in the Middle Ages to make the




cornerstone of Christian belief, the Trinity, into an idea that meant something to the common man as he went about his business. As such, these efforts are at least as important as the learned discussion of the theologians in understanding Christian faith. Fortunately, medievalists are at last studying these aspects of practical religion, drawing on much of the previously understudied material that is available at the level of the faithful themselves.

Notes

[1] No reference is made to illuminated manuscripts because these would have been seen by the secular clergy, monks or a few privileged laymen or laywomen only. The subject has been studied by Boespflug and Zaluska (1994).

[2] The modern practice of crossing one's fingers while telling a lie to mitigate its effects may have originated much later than the Middle Ages, when it was no longer acceptable to make the sign of the cross openly.

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Caesarius of Heisterbach. Dialogue on Miracles [Dialogus Miraculorum]. Translated by H. E. Scott and C. C. Swinton. 2 vols. London: Bland, 1929.

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Dronke, Peter. The Medieval Lyric. 3rd edn. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1996.

Fanger, Claire. Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic. Stroud: Sutton, 1998.




Finucane, Ronald C. Miracles and Pilgrims: Popular Beliefs in Medieval England. London: J. M. Dent, 1977.

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Gunton, Colin E. The Promise of Trinitarian Theology. 2nd edn. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1997.

Harding, Alan. England in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Hardon, John A. Modern Catholic Dictionary. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1980.

Hill, Thomas D. "Invocation of the Trinity and the Tradition of the Lorica in Old English Poetry." Speculum 56 (1981):259-67.

Hunt, Tony. Popular Medicine in Thirteenth Century England. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990.

John of Damascus. On the Divine Images [De Imaginibus I]. Translated by David Anderson. Crestwood, New York: Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1980.

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Kittredge, George L. Witchcraft in Old and New England. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929.

Legge, W. "The Trinity in Medieval Art." Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist n. s. 13 (1907):233- 43.

Map, Walter. Courtiers' Trifles [De Nugis Curialium]. Translated by C. N. L. Brooke and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.

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Peters, Edward. The Magician, the Witch and the Law. Hassocks: Harvester Press, 1978.

Pettazoni, R. "The Pagan Origins of the Three-headed Representation of the Christian Trinity." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 9 (1946):135-51.

Post, W. Ellwood. Saints, Signs and Symbols. 2nd edn. London: SPCK, 1975.

Raw, Barbara C. Trinity and Incarnation in Anglo-Saxon Art and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

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Southern, Richard W. Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.




Steuart, Dom Benedict. The Development of Christian Worship: An Outline of Liturgical Worship. London: Longmans Green and Company, 1953.

Storms, Godfrid. Anglo-Saxon Magic. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1948.

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Biographical Note Dr Ursula Rowlatt is a freelance researcher interested in English popular culture in the Early and High Middle Ages.



popular representations of the trinity in england, 990-1300

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