medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Dr Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]>
>L. Sinanoglou, "The Christ Child as Sacrifice," Speculum, 48 (1973),
492-509.
full citation:
Sinanoglou, Leah. “The Christ Child as Sacrifice: A Medieval Tradition and
the Corpus Christi Plays,” Speculum, XLVIII, 1973, 492-509.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2854445.pdf
(a copy to anyone who needs one)
her focus is primarily on the second part of the title, but she does deal, in
the first half of her article, with the earlier history of the phenomenon,
offering this very early example:
"The Vitae Patrum tells of an aged and saintly Egyptian monk who found him
self unable to believe that the bread of the Sacrament is indeed the
body of Christ. Two of his fellow monks expostulated with him in vain, then
prayed for divine revelation and accompanied him to Mass. When the loaves
were placed on the altar, it seemed to the three monks that a little Boy lay
there. As the priest stretched out his hand to break the bread, an
angel of God came down from heaven and stabbed the Child with a knife,
catching His blood in a chalice. When
[492] the priest broke the bread into small pieces, the angel cut up
the Boy's limbs. The doubting monk went forward to partake of the S
crament, and was given bleeding flesh, whereupon he cried out, "Lord, I
believe that the bread laid on the altar is Thy Body and the chalice Thy
Blood." Upon these words, the flesh mercifully reassumed the semblance of
bread, he communed, and the three re turned to their cells praising
God for so effectively curing the old monk's unbelief."
what a curious, blood-thirsty religion that was.
and she quotes this, from a Christmas sermon of Aelred of Rievaulx:
"Bethlehem, the house of bread, is the Holy Church, in which is offered the
body of Christ, that is, true bread. The manger in Bethlehem is the altar of
the church. There feed ;the animals of Christ .... In this manger is Jesus
wrapped in swaddling clothes. The wrapping with swaddling clothes is the
veiling of the sacrament. In this manger, under the species of bread and wine,
are the true body and blood of Christ. There, we believe, is Christ, but
wrapped in swaddling clothes, that is, invisible in the Sacrament. We have no
greater and more evident sign of the birth of Christ than when we daily
consume His body and blood at the holy altar; and when we daily see sacrificed
Him who once was born for us of a virgin. Therefore, brothers, let us hasten
to the manger of God; but as much as we can, let us prepare ourselves
beforehand through His grace, so that united with the angels, with pure
hearts, a clear conscience,and truefaith (I Tim.v) we may sing unto the Lord
in ali our life and conversation: Glory to Godin the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men." (Luke ii 14) (Sermo II, PL CXCV, col. 227).
saying, "Clearly, for St Aelred, every Mass is a Christmas, where the
rebirth of Christ is hailed with thanksgiving. Less evident, perhaps, is
his interpretation of the manger scene as a mysterious figure of the Real
Presence:as the body of the Christ is hailed with thanksgiving."
she (indirectly) notes the correspondence of X in the manger & X present on
the altar, evident in this familiar juxtaposition:
http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/getimage-idx?cc=chartres;entryid=x-fcsp11200003;viewid=FCSP11200003.TIF;x=1500;y=988;width=1500;height=988;res=1;view=image
which gets me somewhat Out of the Weeds.
c
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