medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Learned Ones,
I have recently been trying to make sense of a passage in Pierre de Roissy's
Manuale de mysteriis Ecclesiae, a sort of early 13th-century precursor of Durandus
by a chancellor of Chartres Cathedral. In other words, it is a symbolic interpretation
of the fabric and decoration of a church. This is what he says on doors:
De [h]ostio. [H]ostium est Christus, qui dicit: Ego sum [h]ostium [John X, 7]. Si
autem sint plura [h]ostia, significant prelatos, per quos intratur ad Christum; et sunt
versus meridiem et aquilonem, quia aliqui de utroque populo intrant. Unde Ysaias :
Dicam aquiloni : Da ; et austro : Noli prohibere.
My (undoubtedly faulty) translation of this is:
The door is Christ, who said: "I am the door". If, however, there are more doors,
they signify prelates, by whom one enters to Christ; and they are toward the south
and north, because some of the people enter from both directions. Whence Isaiah:
it is said to the north: give [them up], and to the south: do not hold them back.
His parting reference to Isaiah XLIII, 6, is not at all clear to me. Does it simply
signify that people would be welcome through either door? Or is there something
more to it? Can anyone enlighten me with a comprehensible exegesis of this
reference?
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
PS Any and all "improvements" to my translation would also be welcomed.
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