medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear colleagues
I have three questions about "double-believers" for Western specialists,
and I apologise in advance if they are too 'easy' or inappropriate for the
list:
Bede says in Book II, chapter 15 of his Ecclesiastical History that
Raedwald "…was seduced by his wife and by certain evil teachers and
perverted from the sincerity of his faith, so that his last state was worse
than his first. After the manner of the ancient Samaritans, he seemed to be
serving both Christ and the gods whom he had previously served; in the same
temple he had one altar for the Christian sacrifice and another small altar
on which to offer victims to devils."
Can anyone explain to me the reference to 'ancient Samaritans'? I suppose
this must be a NT reference, but I cannot find it.
My second question is about the festivities surrounding St Urban. In a
footnote about the celebrations of the ancient 'pagan' feast of Yarilo in
the Nizhnii Novgorod episcopate of Tikhon Zadonskii (eighteenth century),
Nadeda Gorodetzky suggests that the Western rites on St Urban's day might
be comparable. Yarilo festivities took place at different times in
different places, but in Tikhon's diocese on the day "that genuine
Christians start the fast; in that period in which the holy Church has not
[yet] had time to start Pentecost" (so presumably between Easter Sunday and
Pentecost). Apparently involved the ritual destruction of an effigy
representing Spring, fertility and/or new vegetation. Tikhon viewed Yarilo
as a 'deity of lust'. Surely St Urban wasn't similarly tainted?!
Does anybody know a good source for material on the feast of St Urban,
preferably primary sources complaining about it (the earlier the better)?
Finally, in the c11-12th century Statute of Vladimir, 'praying under the
corn-drying bin' is listed as one of the offences that the Church Courts
are to judge. I suspect that rather than reflecting actual practice in
early Rus, this is a prohibition taken from the Nomocanon, but I can't
track it down. Any ideas? Are there other European Christian cultures in
which this is recorded as a problem?
Many thanks in advance,
Stella
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Dr Stella Rock
Research Fellow
Arts B
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QL
Tel: 01273 678837
Fax: 01273 877174
Email:[log in to unmask]
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