medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (23. November) is the feast day of:
Clement I, pope (d. ca. 100). The author of an extant letter to the church of Corinth and the suppositious author of the pseudo-Clementine _Recognitions_ and _Homilies_, C. occupies either third or fourth place in early lists of the bishops of Rome. Although it now seems unlikely that he was martyred, throughout the Middle Ages he was accorded martyrial status (as he still is in many churches). According to his legendary late antique Passio (BHL 1848), C. was exiled by the emperor Trajan to the mines of Crimea, evangelized there with much success, and for his pains was thrown into the Black Sea weighted down with an anchor. In response to the prayers of his disciples Cornelius and Phoebus, the waters parted and C.'s body was miraculously revealed in a chapel where the faithful could venerate him annually for a week beginning on his _dies natalis_.
Thus far C.'s Passio. In the ninth century, Sts. Constantine/Cyril and Methodius brought to Rome from Constantinople bodily relics believed to be his (Constantine/Cyril is said to have found or obtained these, together with the fatal anchor, in the Crimea), where they were placed in Rome's basilica di San Clemente. Here's a view of Constantine/Cyril and Methodius receiving C.'s remains by the Black Sea as depicted in the late tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613):
http://tinyurl.com/25cr2y8
In an eleventh- or early twelfth-century fresco in what is now the lower church of San Clemente depicting its reception of that saint's relics, Constantine/Cyril and Methodius (one nimbed, the other not) are shown at left accompanying the pope:
http://tinyurl.com/yl5eltu
This view is taken from a watercolor of the fresco made shortly after its discovery in the nineteenth century:
http://tinyurl.com/yfnu2a8
A tradition known to the author of the first Vita of St. Genovefa of Paris (BHL 3334; ca. 520) and perpetuated e.g. in the legendary Passiones to St. Dionysius/Denys of Paris claims an apostolic origin for the church of Paris and for other Gallic churches in asserting their evangelization by missionaries whom C. had sent out from Rome.
Some portrayals of C.:
a) C. comes second (after Martin) in the mid-sixth-century procession of male saints in the nave of Ravenna's Sant'Apollinare Nuovo:
http://www.ravennamosaici.it/apollinare_interna_06.htm
http://tinyurl.com/y9tsl7d
b) C. (saying Mass at an altar table) as depicted in an eleventh-century fresco in what is now the lower church of Rome's San Clemente:
http://tinyurl.com/23fbdg7
c) C. (lower register, to the left of the niche) as depicted in the late twelfth-century apse mosaic of the cathedral of Santa Maria la Nuova at Monreale:
http://maik07.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/m-abside1.jpg
d) C. as depicted in a thirteenth-century fresco in the church of the grotta di San Giovanni at Cafaro, a locality of San Vito dei Normanni (BR) in southern Apulia:
http://tinyurl.com/26pvjgx
e) C. (at left, in tub) being baptized by St. Peter and (at right, at an altar table) saying Mass as depicted in a panel of the thirteenth-century St. Clement window in the choir of Köln's Basilika St. Kunibert (an earlier to mid-thirteenth-century replacement for a predecessor dedicated to C.):
http://media.kunst-fuer-alle.de/img/41/g/41_00448697.jpg
Detail views:
http://media.kunst-fuer-alle.de/img/41/g/41_00448699.jpg
http://media.kunst-fuer-alle.de/img/41/g/41_00448702.jpg
f) C. (at right, lower register) sending St. Dionysius and companions to Gaul as depicted in a mid-thirteenth-century copy of a French-language Life of St. Dionysius of Paris (Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 1098, fol. 34r):
http://tinyurl.com/25year8
g) An expandable view of C.'s martyrdom as depicted in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 162v):
http://tinyurl.com/2cu2znc
h) C.'s martyrdom as depicted in an early fourteenth-century collection of French-language saint's lives (St John's College, Cambridge, MS B.9, fol.133v):
http://tinyurl.com/2hendw
i) C.'s martyrdom as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century illustrated collection of French-language saint's lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fol. 74r):
http://tinyurl.com/ylal2j2
j) C. (at right) sending St. Dionysius and other missionaries to Gaul as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century French-language collection of saint's lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 204v):
http://tinyurl.com/yfrz7hr
k) C. (at left; at right, St. Meletius of Antioch) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the Paraclis of the Theotokos in the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/yekmrox
Detail (C.):
http://tinyurl.com/ycupajb
l) C. (at left; at right, St. Peter of Alexandria) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/yjvkroz
m) C.'s martyrdom as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (1348) of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 311r):
http://tinyurl.com/28sckhc
n) C.'s martyrdom as depicted in the very early fifteenth-century Breviary of Martin of Aragon (Paris, BnF, ms. Rothschild 2529, fol. 409v), showing him weighted down with a mill wheel:
http://tinyurl.com/23rue4j
http://saints.sqpn.com/saintc14.jpg
o) Clement (at left, lower register) blessing St. Domitilla in prison as depicted in an illumination depicting events from the legendary Passio of Nereus and Achilleus in a later fifteenth-century copy (1463) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 50, fol. 358v):
http://tinyurl.com/26byca6
p) C. as depicted in a panel of the originally late fifteenth-century east window (restored, nineteenth century) of the redundant Church of All Saints in Langport (Somerset; photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2551999304/
Detail (C.):
http://tinyurl.com/2vxks6c
q) C. as depicted in a panel of a late fifteenth-century window in the Church of St Peter, Stockerston (Leics; photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2302977928/
http://tinyurl.com/2w8blaf
Slightly enlarged images of some of these portrayals and other, mostly late medieval depictions of C. are here:
http://hodiemecum.hautetfort.com/c
Some dedications to C.:
a) Thanks to the presence of his supposed relics in the abbey church at Casauria (today's Castiglione a Casauria [PE]) in Abruzzo, C. was long a saint of the Regno. When the abbey was established by Louis II in 873 it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. But the power of the relics (traditionally said to have been brought there right after the founding) seems to have overcome this fairly swiftly. For most of its history the abbey was known popularly as that of San Clemente a Casauria and its property was _terra sancti Clementis_ in the same way that Montecassino's was _terra sancti Benedicti_. Here's a view of its reliquary in which C.'s relics are thought to have been housed:
http://tinyurl.com/5k7rs4
Today's abbey church of San Clemente a Casauria, one of the region's "romanesque" monuments, is essentially a twelfth-century structure with later modifications. The page devoted to it at the archived Italian-language site Abruzzo Romanico has expandable views of major features:
http://tinyurl.com/6xuy7f
Italian nell'Arte Medievale has two pages of views of this monument but at this writing the site is again off-line:
http://tinyurl.com/wppyl
http://tinyurl.com/yhjeyk
A view of the lunette over the principal entrance with C. in the center giving his blessing and with abbot Leonas at right offering the church (shown with an obviously oversized rose window and with four arches in the facade rather than actual three):
http://tinyurl.com/62ehf5
In the scene just below, depicting the translation of C.'s remains, three arches are shown. They can be seen in this view:
http://tinyurl.com/6jyhhv
and in some of the views here:
http://tinyurl.com/6afdjs
A porch was added in the later twelfth century. After fourteenth- and fifteenth-century earthquakes, the front of the building now looks like this:
http://tinyurl.com/2wceeur
Despite the prevailing tendency to refer to the abbey simply as that of St. Clement, its original dedication to the Trinity persevered in official usage. This illustration from the abbey's twelfth-century cartulary chronicle by John Berard calls it the "Monasterium Sanctae Trinitatis & Sancti Clementis":
http://tinyurl.com/5o6ssw
The four kings (from left to right in this drawing: Hugh, his predecessor Lambert, Lothar II, and Berengar II) are the ones portrayed on the jambs of the main entrance:
http://flickr.com/photos/54576605@N00/829147402/sizes/o/
Inside, the ciborium is of the fourteenth century, replacing an earthquake-damaged predecessor:
http://tinyurl.com/5uk67n
Note the inscription on the base: ... TVMBA SACRA CLEMENTIS HIC PAULI DECVS ET PETRI.
When that was carved, C.'s supposed remains were presumably in that late antique sarcophagus serving as an altar.
Distance views from the nave to the ciborium, showing the candelabrum and the ambo:
http://tinyurl.com/6lvvzg
http://tinyurl.com/5sytaz
And a view looking back towards the entrance:
http://flickr.com/photos/54576605@N00/829148494/sizes/o/
Italian-language accounts of these and other of the church's works of art are here (use the menu at left below 'Abbazia'):
http://www.sanclementeacasauria.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/8/opere
This church did not escape unscathed from the terrible earthquake of 6. April 2009 centered in the Aquilano:
http://tinyurl.com/yhvy3l2
http://www.wmf.org/project/abbey-san-clemente-casauria
b) Another attractive dedication to C. in the same region is the ex-abbey church of San Clemente al Vomano in Notaresco (TE)'s _frazione_ of Guardia Vomano, an originally twelfth-century re-building of a ninth-century predecessor (the portal bears a date variously read as 1108 and 1158). Restored in the last century, it too possesses a noteworthy ciborium. The monastery, first securely documented from 1121, is said to have been founded by Louis II (the founder of San Clemente a Casauria) as a gift for his daughter Ermengarda, queen of Provence. Four illustrated, Italian-language pages on the site:
http://pensieriteramani.splinder.com/tag/guardia+vomano
http://tinyurl.com/y8f2sd9
http://tinyurl.com/y9rj45b
http://tinyurl.com/ye2b3b2
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/yhrzsf2
http://tinyurl.com/ygjhj9r
http://tinyurl.com/yabxlna
http://tinyurl.com/yenj9hp
c) And, while we are still in the twelfth century, not to forget San Clemente at Rome (which latter, as noted above, has relics of C. said to have been brought from Constantinople). Herewith some brief accounts in English:
http://www.rome.info/basilicas/st-clement/
http://romanchurches.wikia.com/wiki/San_Clemente
and in Italian:
http://tinyurl.com/ynupmx
http://www.romecity.it/Sanclemente.htm
A longer, illustrated, English-language account in Herbert L. Kessler and Johanna Zacharias, _Rome 1300: On the Path of the Pilgrim_ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000; pp. 72-89) begins here (for those with access to Google Books):
http://tinyurl.com/2646qp
Exterior views (protyry):
http://www.marcantonioarchitects.com/San_Clem_Figure1.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2tqsfy
Interior views of the originally early twelfth-century upper church:
http://tinyurl.com/29v3j5
http://tinyurl.com/yze8neu
http://tinyurl.com/yvcvvr
http://www.emmauscollege.nl/images/tekenen/clement2.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/jk86fm.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2v9ar2z
http://tinyurl.com/2wemdwg
This church is built over a late antique predecessor of the same dedication that did not outlast the eleventh century. Parts of that were excavated during rebuilding work on its successor in the mid-nineteenth century. One part of the Tour at this site:
http://www.basilicasanclemente.com/
has a plan of the fourth-century basilica underneath the twelfth-century church, as well as pop-up views of structures (incl. nineteenth-century piers and vaults) and frescoes here. Rather better views of early medieval frescoes on this level are here:
http://tinyurl.com/2cmwlmk
This Sacred Destinations page on Rome's San Clemente offers some good views of the lower church:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-san-clemente
For those not afraid of Danish, there's a detailed discussion (and a plan showing the locations of all the frescoes) here:
http://tinyurl.com/ykrvps
d) Also from the twelfth century, with restorations in the last two centuries, is the Doppelkirche (double church) Schwarzrheindorf in Bonn, with its lower church dedicated to C. and its slightly later upper church (built for a community of Benedictine nuns) dedicated to the BVM. Situated towards the northern end of Bonn-Beuel (across the Rhine from the city centre), it's worth the little extra effort that it takes to get to it. An illustrated, English-language account is here:
http://tinyurl.com/64eo92
An illustrated, German-language account (views expandable):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clemens_(Schwarzrheindorf)
Further views:
http://tinyurl.com/5zpu85
http://tinyurl.com/5gv98m
e) Also dedicated to C. is the cathedral of Århus, begun in the later twelfth century but with most of the present fabric being of the later fifteenth century. An English-language page on its history is here:
http://www.aarhus-domkirke.dk/History-54.aspx
An illustrated, English-language page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarhus_Cathedral
An illustrated, Danish-language tour begins here:
http://www.aarhus-domkirke.dk/Bygningen-41.aspx
Other views:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/12c202/
http://flickr.com/photos/v_koeditz/1804933492/
http://www.aarhus-domkirke.dk/Billeder-32.aspx
http://www.gingerelli.com/Cruise/Arhus/Arhus.htm
f) Some views of the originally eleventh-/twelfth-century church of St. Clement (kostel sv. Klimenta) in Stará Boleslav (Central Bohemia):
http://kostelyunas.net/kostely/stara_boleslav_1_3.jpg
http://kostelyunas.net/kostely/stara_boleslav_1_5.jpg
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/22808431
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Klimentsb.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ya2ubrf
g) The mostly twelfth-century église Saint-Clément at Saint-Clément sur Guye (Saône-et-Loire), last restored from 1992 to 1995:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/1925845.jpg
http://www.lrmh.fr/images/images.png/dir227/ABC19955538.png
http://www.lrmh.fr/images/images.png/dir205/ABC19955536.png
http://www.st-clement.com/Eglise_auberge_07.1.02.jpg
h) A lightly illustrated, German-language page on the originally twelfth-century (and formerly collegiate) church of St. Clemens in the Wissel section of Kalkar (Lkr. Kleve) in Nordrhein-Westfalen:
http://www.heimat-kleve.de/geschichte/chronik/05_04.htm
Other views (the choir is from the fifteenth century):
http://tinyurl.com/67myj4
http://tinyurl.com/5cn9gq
http://www.stclemens-wissel.de/backoffice/ellert/index.html
Baptismal font (twelfth-century?):
http://tinyurl.com/64x7ll
i) An illustrated (one exterior view), German-language page on the originally twelfth- or thirteenth-century St. Clemens-Romanus Kirche in Marklohe (Lkr. Nienburg/Weser) in Niedersachsen:
http://tinyurl.com/399z2s
A better view:
http://tinyurl.com/28uzr95
j) An illustrated (one exterior view), English-language page on C.'s originally twelfth-century church at Ashampstead (Berks):
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/churches/ashampstead.html
And a page on that church's wall paintings:
http://tinyurl.com/2l5ubx
k) The ruined thirteenth-century Sankt Klemens kyrka in Visby (Gotland):
http://www.bringsarve.com/ruiner/stnickolais.jpg
http://www.guteinfo.com/scripts/utskrift.asp?id=1722&ant=0
http://tinyurl.com/6dls7g
http://tinyurl.com/69sxqm
l) Views of the main portal of the originally thirteenth-century but since almost entirely rebuilt igreja de São Clemente in the homonymous _freguesia_ of Loulé (Distrito de Faro) in Algarve and of its adjacent, originally earlier tower, thought to have served as a minaret before the Reconquista:
http://tinyurl.com/yg5uhep
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vitor107/4095594057/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3305/3597575739_89e252441d_b.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/yb64fep
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/19929604.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/18881622.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/y9ysnjr
m) The originally fourteenth(?)-century nave and twelfth-century tower of the église Saint-Clément at Saint-Clément (Meurthe-et-Moselle):
http://tinyurl.com/674szs
http://tinyurl.com/5ahd3b
n) A page of views of C.'s church at Terrington St Clement (Norfolk), originally built in the fourteenth century for the Gonville who founded Gonville Hall at the University of Cambridge (since 1557 Gonville and Caius College):
http://tinyurl.com/yruj2m
o) An illustrated, English-language page on the originally late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Church of St Mary and St Clement, Clavering (Essex):
http://tinyurl.com/2fht47p
Another exterior view:
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1819966
p) Two illustrated, English-language pages on the late fourteenth-(?)/early fifteenth-century St Clement Colegate in Norwich:
http://tinyurl.com/2rsudy
http://www.norwich-churches.org/St%20Clements/home.shtm
q) Some very differently illustrated English-language pages on the thirteenth-/fifteenth-century St Clement's in West Thurrock (Essex):
http://tinyurl.com/yc8yptw
http://www.essexchurches.info/church.asp?p=West%20Thurrock
http://tinyurl.com/3ao2hd
Views of that church's fifteenth-century tower:
http://tinyurl.com/2w6sxy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/315915867/
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/12330
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
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