medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Fr Ambrose,
Here is a part of a post written by Prof Florin Curta on another list (that
is, byzans-l), concerning this topic:
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As for Innocent III, I believe he in fact acknowledged the practice of
right-to-left crossing as being the standard, if not the correct, one. But
he also pointed to an increasing number of people using the left-to-right
crossing in imitation of what the priest (facing the people in the church)
would have done. In other words, according to Innocent, the left-to-right
crossing was a misunderstanding of what some thirteenth-century priests
were doing to teach the right way of making the sign of the cross (or to
cross the crowd "in the mirror"). Innocent explains that the symbolism
attached to the right-to-left movement is that Jesus "moved" from the Jews
(right) to the Gentiles (left). He also mentions that by 1200, there was
already an explanation for innovation: making the sign from left to right
meant moving from misery (left) to glory (right), "just as Christ over
Paradise."
Hope this helps.
Florin
_____________________________________________________________
Florin Curta
Department of History
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of Florida
4411 Turlington Hall
P.O. Box 117320
Gainesville, FL 32611-7320
Phone: (352) 392-0271
FAX: (352) 392-6927
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/fcurta
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And, then, on December 31, 2000, the same Prof Curta added:
The passage in question is not from Innocent's epistles, but from his _De
Sacro Altaris Mysterio_ II 35:
Est autem signum crucis tribus digitis exprimendum, quia sub invocatione
Trinitatis imprimitur, de qua dicit propheta: "Quis appendit tribus digitis
molem terrae?" ita quod a superiori descendat in inferius, et a dextra
transeat ad sinistram, quia Christus de coelo descendit in terram, et a
Judaeis transivit ad gentes. Quidam tamen signum crucis a sinistra
producunt in dextram, quia de miseria transire debemus ad gloriam, sicut et
Christus transivit de morte ad vitam, et de inferno ad paradisum,
praesertim ut seipsos et alios uno eodemque pariter modo consignent.
Constat autem quod cum super alios signum crucis imprimimus, ipsos a
sinistris consignamus in dextram. Verum si diligenter attendas, etiam super
alios signum crucis a dextra producimus in sinistram, quia non consignamus
eos quasi vertendes dorsum, sed quasi faciem praesentantes.
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All the best,
Serban Marin,
Bucharest, Romania,
[log in to unmask]
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> Two cents from an Orthodox lurker..
>
> The universal custom in the West of the first millennium and beyond was
> the present Eastern Orthodox custom of signing oneself right to left
> (not left to right,) and with three fingers. A sketchy article on these
> points, with rather sketchy references (esp. Stevens, The Cross in the
> Life and Literature of the Anglo-Saxons (New York, 1904) is in the
> online Catholic Enc. at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13785a.htm
>
> There is an interesting sermon of Abbot Aelfric of Abingdon which he
> gave around the year 1000 in which he states, "Though a man wave
> wonderfully with his hand, yet it is not the sign of the Cross: With
> three fingers thou shalt sign thyself" (Sermon for Sept. 14.)
>
> We know that in England the change from right shoulder first and
> probably also to indiscriminate use of the fingers was
> underway sometime in the 14th century, though there were holdouts (a
> 15th c. MS. York Missal has the Priest cross himself with the paten
> right to left). Pope Innocent III (d. 1216) has a commentary on the sign
> of the cross making clear that the three fingers were used and that it
> was, in his day, right to left still.
>
> As to the laity signing others - this is normal in the Eastern Churches,
> with the difference that the layperson signs the Cross on another
> person's body while holding his/her fingers as is done when signing
> oneself, and not holding the fingers in the fashion of a priest when
> blessing someone.
>
> And some anecdotal evidence from a liturgical historian, the Rev.
> Father Michael Mansbridge-Wood of Saint Petroc Monastery on Tasmania,
> Australia:
>
> " SIGN OF THE CROSS: For what it's worth, I was brought up in a country
> village Church of England. As a child, I was taught to make the sign of
> the Cross from right to left - by a Priest who had been brought up in
> the Celtic fringe counties in the last century. We always understood
> this to be "our old way" of signing ourselves. I have mentioned before
> my belief that there was a "thin stream" of theology and customs handed
> down in Britain - this is just one of the many reasons for that belief."
>
> Fr Ambrose
> ______________________________
>
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