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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture I'm not sure that either of the two hymns carries the idea of ransom. One needs to consider carefuly the word ransom itself--a prisoner captured in war is ransomed--medieval writers would have assumed that the holder of the captive had a right to hold him and thus a right to ransom, but whether that would even pass muster by Christian theological standards is one question; but a kidnapper holds a captive by sheer force and ransom paid for the captive's release is not justly owed; it may be paid for the sake of the good goal of releasing the captive but that doesn't make the captive-holder just. Medieval theologians would have considered the payment of such ransom an act of charity and it was regularly done from the late antique period onward by popes and bishops; even the Mercedarian Order founded to ransom captives from Muslims.. So the term ransom can signify more than one thing and the context must be evaluated to determine its significance. These are some of the issues lying in the background as Anselm approached these matters. But in these two hymns, only the word "price" even approaches "ransom." Pange Lingua carries the idea of the devil having been tricked, but implicit here is the idea that the devil got caught on what he refused to recognize--the Incarnation. THe baited hook imagery of Gregory of Nyssa is actually less palatable, in my view, because a fish goes after the bait not out of any false motive but out of a desire to feed himself. So one could view this imagery as the Devil non-culpably being deceived by God. Of course the problem is that a fish has no free-will so going after food can never be his "fault"; whereas humans and angels (the Devil) are supposed to use reason and will to determine whether an action (going after food) is a good or bad thing to do. Pange Lingua refers to the devil as deceiver (he lied to Eve, though she bore responsibility for not weighing God's word against the serpent's) but to God's action in the Incarnation as skill, art, not as deception. In Vexilla Regis we read of the price of the world but not any notion that this price was owed to the Devil as a ransom. It could be the price "owed" to order/justice/harmony--for which a price must be paid if a new injustice/disorder is not to be perpetrated. The poem simply doesn't specify (Ars poetica non omnia dicere est"). Vexilla Regis is compatible with a variety of atonement theologies. Even Gregory of Nyssa does not attribute any immoral/unjust act to God: the divinity is not externally visible (by definition it could not be), so the Devil, attacking the visible humanity could be said to have been taken in not by God's deception but by his own failure to ask himself what might be involved in this particular person, Jesus of Nazareth. The question to be answered s whether any of these authors attribute any action that could be called immoral, unrighteous to God or God the Father: deception, unjust demands on the Son, letting injustice go unpunished etc. Dennis Martin >>> [log in to unmask] 05/14/04 2:37 AM >>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Atonement (4) Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330 - c. 395 AD) in his 'Oratio Catechetica' xxi-xxvi, presents the Incarnation in terms of a baited hook. I do not have his book to hand, but his argument was reproduced by Rufinus of Aquileia, c. 400 AD, in his 'Commentary on the Apostles' Creed': "The purpse of the Incarnation ... was that the divine virtue of the Son of God might be as it were a hook hidden beneath the form of human flesh ... to lure on the prince of this age to a contest; that the Son might offer him his flesh as a bait and that then the divinity which lay beneath might catch him and hold him fast with its hook ... Then, as a fish when it seizes a baited hook not only fails to drag off the bait but is itself dragged out of the water as food for others; so he that had the power of death seized the body of Jesus in death, unaware of the hook of divinity concealed therein. Having swallowed it, he was caught straightway; the bars of hell were burst, and he was, as it were, drawn up from the pit, to become food for others ..." The idea of the Atonement as a Ransom was repudiated in no uncertain terms by Gregory Nazianzen (Orationes, xlv.22) who said: "Was it paid to the evil one? Monstrous thought! The devil receives a ransom not only from God but of God .. To the Father? But we were not in bondage to him ... And could the Father delight in the death of his Son?" But despite Gregory's objections the idea became popular, being expounded in various forms by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367); Augustine of Hippo (354-430), who uses the simile of the mousetrap; Pope Leo I (d. 461), Pope Gregory I (540-604) and by the western Fathers generally. We find it vividly expressed in the hymns of Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530 - c. 610), notably in the "Pange, lingua" still used at the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday: Hoc opus nostrae salutis ordo depoposcerat, multiformis perditoris arte ut artem falleret et medelam ferret indeo, hostis unde laeserat. In J.M. Neale's well-known translation: Thus the scheme of our salvation was of old in order laid That the manifold deceiver's art by ar might be outweighed, And the lure the foe put forward into means of healing made. Again in the "Vexilla Regis" Fortunatus writes: Beata cuius bracchiis pretium pependit saeculi, statera facta est corporis praedam tulitque tartari. In Neale's translation: On whose dear arms, so widely flung, The weight of this world's ransom hung: The price of humankind to pay, And spoil the spoiler of his prey. ===== ____________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! 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