medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Jesuit Herbert Thurston gives this as the first *explicit* description of signing from left to right from Lucas, Bishop of the Spanish city of Tuy (1239-49). He doesn't date it but it comes from Lucas's * De Altera Vita, Adversus Albigenses* (bk ii, c. 15) from the mid-1230s.
"A question occurs regarding the sign of the cross [*de consignatione*] whether when the faithful make the sign of the cross over themselves or others the hand ought to pass from the left to the right or from the right to the left. To which we answer, as we honestly believe and hold, that both methods are good, both holy, both able to overthrow the might of the enemy, providing only the Christian religion uses them in Catholic simplicity. Seeing, however, that many people presumptuously endeavour to put an end to one of these methods, maintaining that the hand ought not to pass from left to right, as has been handed down to us from our fathers, let us in the interests of charity say a few words on this subject.
For when our Lord Jesus Christ for the redemption of the human race, mercifully blest the world, he proceeded from the Father, he came into the world, he descended, on the left hand as it were, into hell, and ascending to heaven he sitteth on the right hand of God. Now it is this which every faithful Christian seems to portray, when, on guarding his face [*faciem suam muniens*] with the sign of the cross, he raises three extended fingers on high, in front of his forehead [*contra frontem*] saying "In nomine Patris," then lowers them towards his beard with the words "et Filii," then to the left saying "et Spiritus Sancti," and finally to the right as he utters "Amen."
>From Herbert Thurston, *Familiar Prayers, Their Origin and History* (Westminster MA: Newman Press, 1953), p. 12.
Best,
John
-------------------------------------------------
John Shinners
Professor of Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Office: (574) 284-4494
Fax: (574) 284-4716
----- Original Message -----
From: Diana Wright <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sunday, September 25, 2005 6:17 pm
Subject: [M-R] Crossing
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
> When did the Western church begin crossing from left-to-right?
> And why? Apparently the Eastern & Western churches both crossed
> right-to-left for a very long time. I had thought this was under
> Innocent III but I recently saw something that suggested it was later.
>
> DW
>
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