medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thank you! This is exactly the sort of information I've been unable
to find.
Daniélou definitely goes on my list of resources to look for. I do
read French with reasonable fluency, so I should be able to struggle
through it. My nearby university library system appears to have
copies, but not locally.
This is (if I may say so) another example of the extremely practical,
yet difficult to answer, questions that I often field from historical
re-enactors who want to do things *right*. I thoroughly admire and
share the impulse, but these do seem to be just the sort of thing
that no one bothered to write down in period, or that researchers on
the whole haven't thought worthwhile to extract and discuss.
The sign of the cross question came to me originally from people who
portray 16th-century members of Queen Elizabeth I's court, some of
whom of course were recusants, but most of whom were good Anglicans.
They want to know things like: did Anglicans still cross themselves
routinely during worship or private prayer? If not, would people of
an older generation still cross themselves by reflex under certain
circumstances -- when frightened, or upon hearing of someone's death,
for instance? This is the sort of thing that just doesn't seem to be
written down anywhere that I've been able to find -- which is why, as
I said, I was surprised to find a few mentions in Keith Thomas's
_Religion and the Decline of Magic_ recently (a source I ought to
have thought of before this).
Thomas, for anyone who's interested, notes that aside from its
continued use by recusants, the sign of the cross continued to be
used in the Anglican rite of baptism (which I already knew -- there
are records of parents snatching their children back from the arms of
the priest to prevent the sign of the cross being made on their
foreheads). The sign of the cross was also traced on the sick or
injured as a form of magical healing, and upon herbs as they were
gathered for medicine or magic. He also mentions that as late as
1604, Anglicans in Lancashire were still in the habit of crossing
themselves "even when they gape".
On Nov 9, 2008, at 12:12 AM, Marjorie Greene wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> On Nov 7, 2008, at 3:57 PM, Chris Laning wrote:
>
> (BTW, I'm still on a quest to discover exactly *how* and when
> people made the sign of the cross on themselves -- nobody ever
> bothers to describe the gestures in detail....)
>
> Jean Daniélou devotes the last chapter of _Les Symboles chrétiens
> primitifs_ to this topic. I have found my copy and will summarize
> as the chapter is much too long to include in toto. The chapter is
> entitled "Le Signe du Tav" (The Tau). He begins his chapter with a
> combination summary and promise of things to come:
>
____________________________________________________________
O Chris Laning <[log in to unmask]> - Davis, California
+ http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com
____________________________________________________________
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