Venantius Fortunatus in Passiontide

The ‘Pange, lingua gloriosi’ presents not only an apt study in Passiontide; it also begs the question as to what traditions Fortunatus was drawing on. Verses two and three are of particular interest for their suggestion that recapitulation is inherently medicinal.

Pange, lingua, gloriosi proelium certaminis
et super crucis tropaeo dic triumphum nobilem,
qualiter redemptor orbis immolatus vicerit.

De parentis protoplasti fraude factor condolens,
quando pomi noxialis morte morsu corruit,
ipse lignum tunc notavit, damna ligni ut solveret.

Hoc opus nostrae salutis ordo depoposcerat,
multiformis perditoris arte ut artem falleret
et medelam ferret inde, hostis unde laeserat.

Quando venit ergo sacri plenitudo temporis,
missus est ab arce patris natus orbis conditor
atque ventre virginali carne factus prodiit.

Vagit infans inter arta conditus praesaepia,
membra pannis involuta virgo mater adligat,
et pedes manusque crura stricta pingit fascia.

Lustra sex qui iam peracta tempus implens corporis,
se volente, natus ad hoc, passioni deditus,
agnus in crucis levatur immolandus stipite.

Hic acetum, fel, arundo, sputa, clavi, lancea;
mite corpus perforatur; sanguis, unda profluit,
terra pontus astra mundus quo lavantur flumine.

Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis,
nulla talem silva profert flore, fronde, germine,
dulce lignum dulce clavo dulce pondus sustinens.

Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera,
et rigor lentescat ille quem dedit nativitas,
ut superni membra regis mite tendas stipite.

Sola digna tu fuisti ferre pretium saeculi
atque portum praeparare nauta mundo naufrago,
quem sacer cruor perunxit fusus agni corpore.

Irenaeus on the Roman Church

Sed quoniam ualde longum est in hoc tali uolumine omnium Ecclesiarum enumerare successions, maximae et antiquissimae et omnibus cognitae, a gloriosissimis duobus apostolis Petro et Paulo Romae fundate et constitutae Ecclesiae, eam quam habet ab apostolis traditionem et adnuntiatem hominibus fidem per successions episcoporum peruenientem usque ad nos indicantes, confundimus omnes eos qui quoquo modo uel per sibiplacentiam uel uanam gloriam uel per caecitatem et sententiam malam, praeterquam oportet colligunt: ad hanc enim Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem conuenire Ecclesiam, hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles, in qua semper ab his qui sunt undique conseruata est ea quae est ab apostolis traditio. (Adv. Haer. 3.3.2.)

‘Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successors of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every church should agree with this church, on account of its pre-eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere’ (3.2), W.H. Rambaut, trans., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol.1, pp. 415-16.

Mary’s Place in Redemption

from: J. Lawson, The Biblical Theology of Saint Irenaeus, London, The Epworth Press, 1948, pp. 150-51.

For S. Irenaeus this is the chief theological significance of the Virgin Birth, a doctrine to which he attaches great importance.

‘If, then, the first Adam had a man for his father, and was born of human seed, it were reasonable to say that the second Adam was begotten of Joseph. But if the former was taken from the dust, and God was his maker, it was incumbent that the latter also, making a recapitulation in Himself, should be formed as man by God [i.e. not by Joseph] to have an analogy with the former as respects His origin’ (Adv. haer. 3.21.10).

Furthermore, the disobedience of a woman provided the historical occasion of the Fall. In like manner, the obedience of a woman provided the occasion of the Incarnation of the One who recapitulated the Fall.

‘Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.’ But Eve was disobedient: for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin… having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, became the cause of salvation, both to herself and to the whole human race…. And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary’ (Adv. haer. 3.22.4).

The obedience of the Blessed Virgin Mary is in fact a subsidiary recapitulating action, exactly analogous to the obedience of Christ. She is a subsidiary Champion.

Theodore of Tarsus – Secondary Sources

Bischoff, B. & Lapidge, M., eds., Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian, Cambridge, CUP, 1994.

Brock, S., ‘St Theodore of Canterbury, the Canterbury School, and the Christian East’, in The Heythrop Journal, 36(4), October 1995, pp.  431-38.

Cubitt, C., Anglo-Saxon Church Councils c.650-c.850, London, Leicester University Press, 1995.

Finsterwalder, P.W., ed. Die Canones Theodori Cantuariensis und ihre Überlieferungsformen, Weimar, 1929.

Lapidge, M., ed. Archbishop Theodore: Commemorative Studies on His Life and Influence, Cambridge, CUP, 1995.

Lapidge, M.,

‘The Career of Archbishop Theodore’;

‘The Study of Greek at the School of Canterbury in the Seventh Century’;

‘The School of Theodore and Hadrian’;

‘Theodore and Anglo-Latin Octosyllabic Verse’,

in Anglo-Latin Literature 600-899, London, The Hambledon Press, 1996.

Siemens, J., ‘Christ’s Restoration of Humankind in the Laterculus Malalianus, 14′, in The Heythrop Journal, 48(1), January 2007, pp. 18-28.

Siemens, J., ‘A Survey of the Christology of Theodore of Tarsus in the Laterculus Malalianus‘, in The Scottish Journal of Theology, 60(2), 2007, pp.  1-13.

Stevenson, J., The Laterculus Malalianus and the School of Archbishop Theodore, Cambridge, CUP, 1995.

Stevenson, J., ‘Ephraim the Syrian in Anglo-Saxon England,’ in Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies Vol. 1, No. 2, July 1998.

Theodore of Tarsus – primary & pseudo-primary sources

Biblical Commentaries, B. Bischoff & M. Lapidge, eds., in Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian, Cambridge, CUP, 1994. 

Iudicia Theodori, P.W. Finsterwalder, ed. in Die Canones Theodori Cantuariensis und ihre Überlieferungsformen, Weimar, 1929.

Laterculus Malalianus, J. Stevenson, ed., in The Laterculus Malalianus and the School of Archbishop Theodore, Cambridge, CUP, 1995.

Irenaean Soteriology

Just as in the invisible world the Logos is already the head of all being created through him, so now in the incarnation he becomes head of the visible and corporeal world, and above all the head of the church, so drawing everything to himself. This represents at the same time a recapitulation of creation and above all, of fallen Adam, i.e. a renewing and saving permeation of the whole history of the world and of mankind by ‘Christ the Head’, from its beginning to its end. In this way, the world, history, man are all brought to their climax, but at the same time, they are all brought back by Christ to their principle, to God. The whole of God’s previous work through the Logos in the world and to men is concentrated in the incarnation of Christ; it reaches its fullness and now in Christ fills the whole of the world and the whole of history.

A. Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition, vol. 1, 2nd ed., trans. J. Bowden, Atlanta, John Knox Press, 1975, p.  102.