medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Herbert Thurston, in _Familiar Prayers, Their Origin and History_ (Westminster MA: Newman Press, 1953; p. 12) cites this passage from Lucas, Bishop of the Spanish city of Tuy (1239-49), which dates 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 endeavor 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."
Anecdotally in primary sources, I've read of it being made when people enter churches, pass graveyards, recite curative charms, encounter purgatorial spirits, etc. Follow the index in Keith Thomas's _Religion and the Decline of Magic" for other instances of its use.
Best,
John
------------------------------------------
John Shinners
Professor of Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Phone: 574-284-4494 or 574-284-4501
www.saintmarys.edu/~hust
----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Morris <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, 14 May 2008 17:14:11 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [M-R] Sign of the cross
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
P.S. I forget when the Greeks abandoned the
thumb-forefinger together with the other three fingers
in the palm in favor of the current practice. The Old
Believers in Russia, of course, refused to adopt the
Grecification of Nikon and still Cross themselves in
the old pre-Nikon style.
SM
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religion and culture
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Laning" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > The question is, what do we know about exactly
> _how_ someone in, for instance, England of the 1480s
> would have gone about the sequence of gestures we
> call "making the sign of the cross" -- and how do we
> know it? And under what circumstances would they do
> it?
>
> 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)
> ~*~*~*~*~*
>
> At the period for which we have certain
> information [circa 10th century] the manner of
> making it in the West was
> identical with that followed at present by Eastern
> Orthodox, i.e. only three fingers
> were used, and the hand travelled from the right
> shoulder to the left.
>
> http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13785a.htm
>
> Pope Innocent III (1198 - 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.
>
> Fr Ambrose
>
> -oOo-
>
> -
> -
>
>
>
>
>
>
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